A few weekends ago I flew to Ottawa to attend a training session - organized by the Provincial Centre of Excellence for Child and Youth mental health - for a new medication tool called Med Ed. I boarded a plane by myself for the first time and safely found my hotel, despite lots of wandering around and asking strangers what to do! All travel expenses were paid for including one night’s stay at the hotel where the training would occur.

My Med Ed training started the next morning along with 24 youth and 10 accompanying adults. We sat at big round tables for breakfast, and then held a group discussion on medication lead the coolest psychiatrist I’ve ever met! She had a tattoo about feminism on her arm and accidentally let the f-bomb out once.

After lunch, the Med Ed book and “passport” were introduced. The Med Ed book is a square spiral bound colourful booklet full of information on psychotropic (mental health related) medication. It covers a ton of questions youth can have when first diagnosed or prescribed medication, such as:

“Why has this medication been prescribed?”

“Will taking medication affect my relationship with my boyfriend/girlfriend?”

“Keeping track of how I am doing on medications – whose job is it?”

That final question is explored fully and within the two booklets there are many charts to track your appointments and medications, as well as your mood and activity levels. The “passport” is a small purse or bag sized version of the larger booklet’s charts and essential details.

Over the weekend I learned about how to teach others to use the Med Ed booklets and came home with some great tools to help youth get the help they need around medication. The Med Ed booklets will be available through places like mindyourmind and potentially pharmacies down the road. There is talk of an online version - which mindyourmind thinks is a great idea – so stay tuned and we’ll keep you up to date!

By Erin