WELCOME to the Talking about Medicines (TABS) website. TABS is a research project, funded by the NHS to develop and pilot a medicines management package that will help children, young people, their parents and their health care providers to talk openly and be active partners in decisions about medicine-taking for long-term conditions (like asthma, diabetes and epilepsies).
Feel free to contact us if you need more information... and please read on to find out why we are doing this and how you could get involved.
One in five children and young people in the UK have longstanding illnesses which may need medicines. Children and young people often do not take medicines as recommended, which can have serious consequences for their health, such as increasing the likelihood of an asthma attack. Children and young people often do not have the chance to talk about their worries when they visit their medicine provider, and their parent's concerns may not be the same as theirs. This can affect their willingness to take medicines. Giving children, young people and their parents help to ask questions during a visit to their medicine provider could help them to get the best from their medicines.
We will study families of children and young people with asthma, diabetes, epilepsy and heart problems. These are long-term conditions that need medicines. We will also talk to the doctors, nurses and pharmacists who care for them. We will ask focus groups of children and young people with these illnesses, parents, and healthcare professionals to think about the barriers to taking medicines and to think of ways to overcome these.
