It brings us great pleasure to announce the success and conclusion of Pharmacy Week 2017! The highlight of our event, “Befriend Your Pharmacist @ South West” carnival was a resounding success with a huge turnout of more than 800 participants!
The event took place on the 15th October 2017 (Sunday) at Canopy @ J Link, situated just next to Jurong Regional Library and JCube. We were glad to have Ms. Low Yen Ling, Mayor of South West district graced the event as our guest of honour on the bright and sunny morning.
Following up on the 3-year theme “Know Your Medicines, Own Your Health, Befriend Your Pharmacist”, the members of the organizing committee of Pharmacy Week 2017 were proud to present the third and concluding instalment of the theme, using ““Befriend Your Pharmacists, Find Us Today!” as the tagline.
The overarching key message conveyed to the public was “Manage your health the right way and the safe way”. 6 main educational booths were specially crafted by members of the organizing committee and set up in the heart of the event, to convey the various sub key messages, via the use of props and interactive games to engage the public. Through their participation, residents are rewarded with fun and goodies, and above all, invaluable take-home messages from each and every booth.
The objectives to educate the public of our key message via booth activities were ultimately achieved. In alignment with Health Sciences Authority’s advisory to address the growing concern among the public, of health products obtained through illegitimate means, residents were encouraged to differentiate between real and fake health products at the game booth “Real or Not” through informative posters and fictitious 3D blown-up versions of health product designs. They were made aware of dangerous interactions between medicines, supplements, and herbs at the booth “Mythbusters”, where common myths and misconceptions surrounding medications were debunked through a ball game involving true or false questions.
The public also gained valuable knowledge on how to self-care for minor ailments such as cold and flu, pain, fever and skin fungal infections via a mock pharmacy setup named “Let’s Go Shopping!” and how good lifestyle choices can prevent and better manage chronic diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol at “The Game of Life”.
Many participants were made aware of the dangers and burden of polypharmacy as they took part in the “Pack It Right” game, where they raced against time to pack a list of medications correctly into a pillbox. Further to that, an emphasis was given to highlight the importance of proper storage of medicines at the “Store It Right” booth.
Esteemed speakers from Health Sciences Authority, Mr. Choong Chih Tzer and pharmacist and volunteer TCM Physician of Singapore Chung Hwa Medical Institution, Ms. Ong Puay San were invited to the event to give informative talks on illegal health products and the safety of traditional Chinese medicines. The real-life examples quoted during the talks were well appreciated by the audience.
A total of 20 students from Republic Polytechnic, 60 undergraduates from National University of Singapore Department of Pharmacy, and 63 young working pharmacists, together with 26 pharmacists in the organizing committee who came from hospitals and community pharmacies across the island volunteered to make this event possible and a memorable one.
This success of this event would not be possible without the partnership, support and sponsorship of the various key players we worked with.
First and foremost, we would like to express our appreciation to Pharmaceutical Society of Singapore for giving us the opportunity to hold the event, and assisting alongside our organizing committee for the past 1 year.
A big thank you to South West Community Development Council for the partnership and the continuous and multifaceted support they have rendered for the past 9 months.
We would also like to thank Health Sciences Authority for their support in our campaign against illegal health products.
Our heartfelt appreciation goes to our 2 passionate guest speakers, who are both practising pharmacists, Mr. Choong Chih Tzer and Ms. Ong Puay San.
We are also deeply grateful to the students from National University of Singapore Pharmaceutical Society and Republic Polytechnic for volunteering to assist in preparations and administering the event.
Finally, we would also like to extend our gratitude to our sponsors for their generous, and the Organizing Committee of Pharmacy Week 2017 for their hard work!
