Australia: “Self-Care – A Consumer’s Choice"
September 2005

“Self-Care – A Consumer’s Choice” was the title of the Australian Self-Medication Industry’s (ASMI) annual meeting this year, which was held in Sydney on September 21st. The potential of self-care to meet the social and economic challenges of healthcare in our time was consistently highlighted from the perspectives of health professionals, industry, consumers and government throughout the day. “Self-medication is an integral part of the Australian self-care system” said the Hon Christopher Pyne MP - Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Health and Ageing, in his keynote address. “In order to adequately respond to the needs of consumers, the Government depends greatly on the support of your industry to facilitate and encourage responsible and informed self-medication … we need to continue to work together to help empower consumers through increased availability of nonprescription medicines and relevant, factual information about the appropriate use of such medicines”, he continued, as he was announcing the provision of a grant to ASMI for a research project to consolidate evidence for the use of selected complementary and OTC medicines.