Co-designing an accessible psychotropic medicine leaflet to help empower people with intellectual and neurodevelopmental disabilities on their prescribed medicines

Description

Background:
People with intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability (PwID) have discussed the struggles they face with reading medicines information developed by pharmaceutical companies. Issues with terminology, large amounts of text, small font and formatting issues all contribute to readability and contributes to a lack of awareness of medicines. This study aimed to explore the thoughts, ideas and experiences of PwID surrounding medicine information and from this, create an accessible medicine leaflet for psychotropic medicines.
Method:
A co-design approach utilising grounded theory was completed. Six focus groups were
conducted across three Australian states, comprising a total of 30 participants (28 PwID and 2 carers). The focus groups reviewed existing leaflets and gave feedback on how they could be improved in terms of content, design, layout and imagery. Constant comparative analysis was done following each focus group. A template example of the accessible medicine leaflet in the form of ‘Risperidone’ was developed.
Findings:
Participants wanted uniformity within the accessible medicine leaflet, with the leaflet following the standard easy read design in terms of layout and design. Participants also wanted the use of real pictures, rather than cartoons or symbols. However, the ability to personalise the leaflet was seen as a high priority for maximum usability and to promote medicine safety.
Conclusion:
The development of a co-designed accessible medicine leaflet provides a unique opportunity to give a voice and promote informed decision-making between PwID and their healthcare professionals.

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Period	14 Oct 2025
Event title	International-Association-for-the-Scientific-Study-of-Intellectual-Disabilities(IASSID) Asia-Pacific Regional Conference
Event type	Conference
Degree of Recognition	International