Prescription Opioid Safety Toolkit
Investigators: Prof Suzanne Nielsen, Prof Paul Dietze, Ms Monika Boogs, Mr Jarrod McMaugh, and Dr Louisa Picco
In Australia, opioid use is a leading cause of preventable injury, chronic disease, and death, causing over 1,000 deaths and costing AUD $15.7 billion annually. Harms extend beyond deaths to include non-fatal overdoses and dependence. Prescription opioids have driven most of this harm over recent decades. Despite this, people who are prescribed opioids have rarely been the focus of overdose prevention efforts. Evidence has also shown that healthcare providers are often reluctant to have conversations around opioid related risks. Knowing this, there is a need to improve health literacy about the role of opioids in chronic pain management and to empower consumers to discuss their use of opioids, including any concerns about safety with their prescribers and pharmacists. To address these gaps, this project aimed to:
1) Co-design and pilot test a consumer resource, ‘Opioid Safety Toolkit’
2) Develop and implement a national communication and dissemination plan and evaluate the Opioid Safety Toolkit.
The Opioid Safety Toolkit was designed and developed over nine months using co-design processes. A total of seven two-hour workshops were conducted, three with healthcare professionals and four with consumers. Following this, user testing interviews were conducted with consumers who had not yet interacted with the Toolkit to test its usability.
The dissemination phase was undertaken in partnership with the national peak organisation representing consumers with pain (Painaustralia) and the national pharmacist peak body, the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia, to implement a national dissemination plan with national reach.
This project has addressed a considerable gap, creating a digital resource with tailored information for people prescribed opioids for pain. The Toolkit was created in consultation with consumers, ensuring the content, messaging, feel and flow are appropriate and meet the needs of this population. This is further highlighted by the Opioid Safety Toolkit being awarded a 2025 Good Design Award Gold Winner for public sector services (https://good-design.org/projects/prescription-opioid-safety-toolkit/), and a winner of the Victorian Premier’s Design Award.
Extensive uptake among consumers (accessed over 91,560 times) demonstrates the need for such a resource, in addition to high satisfaction with the Toolkit. With approximately one-third of Australian pharmacies agreeing to promote the Toolkit, this further demonstrates widespread support for this resource. A broad range of other organisations have now embedded the Toolkit into their websites, including Healthdirect, Harm Reduction Australia, Pharmaceutical Society of Australia (PSA), Painaustralia and several Primary Health Networks (PHNs), providing additional evidence of the utility, need and acceptability of this consumer resource. Consumer engagement in opioid safety behaviours is evident with over 1,460 direct downloads of Toolkit resources from the Toolkit website, in addition to downloads via the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia microsite and direct requests for printouts via the study email address. Since the launch of the Toolkit in August 2024, there continues to be an increase in the supply and number of service providers providing naloxone.
Publications:
- Waddell A, Watterson JL, Basur D, Prawira CO, Picco L, Lam T, Olivier P, Seguin JP, Kay L, Nielsen S. An evidencebased digital prescription opioid safety toolkit for national dissemination: co-design and user testing. Front Digit Health. 2025 Jul 11;7:1600836. doi: 10.3389/fdgth.2025.1600836.
- Wilson H, Picco L & Nielsen S. (2025) Reviewing long-term opioid use in patients experiencing chronic pain in General Practice: Activating patients and supporting clinical decision making. The Australian Journal of General Practice. Jul;54(7):453-458. doi: 10.31128/AJGP-06-24-7330.
- Dostal, J., Picco, L., & Nielsen, S. (2024). Advancing your practice: Opioid safety toolkit. AJP: The Australian Journal of Pharmacy, 105(1244), 68–73. https://ajp.com.au/cpd-activities/opioid-safety-toolkit/
Funder: Department of Health and Aged Care
This project was a collaboration between Monash Addiction Research Centre (MARC), the Burnet Institute, the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia, and Painaustralia.