Medication Management & Substances Interactions
Health professionals and peer mentors will present strategies for medication management and educate about substance interactions.
Session objectives
- Practice medication management strategies.
- Learn how different medications commonly prescribed for spinal chord injuries interact with each other.
- Identify interactions with other commonly used medications, licit and illicit substances (e.g. herbal remedies, alcohol, and marijuana).
- Identify potential hazards of mixing prescriptions, over-the-counter-medications and substances acquired from a variety of sources.
- Learning the importance of communicating with pharmacists and health practitioners to avoid dangerous medication & substance interactions.
Activities
Begin with a lecture on medication and substance use interaction. Leave plenty of opportunity for people to ask questions during the lecture, after the lecture and the presenter should give contact information and remain after the close of the session to allow individuals to contact them privately.
Staff
Presenter should have knowledge of medications used by people with disabilities as well as specialization on substance use. We used a neuropsychologist Frank Sparadeo who prepared the following presentation (reproduced here with his permission).
Powerpoint presentation
Download Dr. Frank Sparadeo's Substance Abuse Prevention and Disability slideshow (560KB).
References
Block, P & Rimmer JH (2000). Shake It Up for Alcohol and Substance Use Reduction: Health Promotion and Capacity Building for Persons with Traumatic Spinal Cord Injuries. National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research CFDA Program 84.133, Award No: H133G010094
Block, P., Bock, B., Becker, B., & Everhart, S. (2001). Alcohol and substance use by adolescents and young adults with recent spinal cord and traumatic brain injuries. Disability Studies Quarterly. 21(2).
