The mission of Ask About Medicines, launched in 2003, is to work with partners to achieve lasting change by encouraging better communication between people and their health professionals and changing expectations so that asking questions about medicines becomes the norm.

The objective of Ask About Medicines is to enable people in the UK to make informed choices about medicine taking, by bringing together a range of stakeholders at local and national levels to:

• increase people's understanding about medicines, including their potential benefits and risks
• help patients to be involved in decisions about their treatment, to the extent that they want to be
• create more opportunities for patients and carers to ask questions and raise concerns about medicines
• encourage health professionals to help patients and carers to ask questions about medicines
• improve access to further sources of helpful, reliable medicines and information.

Ask About Medicines is based on a set of shared beliefs:

• effective communication between patients and their carers and professionals is the hallmark of successful medicine use
• everyone is entitled to be involved in decisions about whether a medicine is right for them, and to choose a different option if they prefer
• everyone should be able to get the medicines information they want and need, from whatever source they choose
• people need better ways of judging the quality of information about medicines
• no-one should be deterred from asking, and asking again, until they have the information they want about a medicine they need or are taking
• doctors, nurses, pharmacists and other health care professionals should be supported, through training, to communicate effectively and help their patients and their carers be involved in decisions about medicines
• health care professionals who respect voluntary and appropriately informed decisions made by patients about their medicine-taking deserve to be supported.
  

Ask About Medicines came about through the unique consortium of Doctor Patient Partnership, the Task force on Medicines Partnership and the pecmi working group.

Ask About Medicines is an initiative of AAMW Ltd, a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee whose Directors are:

• David Dickinson
• Melinda Letts (Company Secretary)
• Joanne Shaw (Chair)

Partner Organisations

AAMW has a number of partner organisations promoting activities around the country. A list of our partners, sponsors and supporters is available here.