22 January 2020

Do you know CNWL patients and carers have access to the Choice and Medication website with detailed information about mental health conditions and the treatments available? You can look up information about your medication(s) at this link and make a choice about which medication might be most suitable for you.

Staff will talk to you about your medication when they meet with you but you may also find it helpful to find out more about your medication options online and discuss them with your healthcare worker

Medicine names aren’t always easy to remember. This can be even more common if you go to a new area, see a new doctor, nurse or therapist, or go on holiday.

One way you can help others to help you is to use one of the handy history charts. You can open handy history as a word file and save it to your computer. You can print it out and fill it in or if you have saved it on your computer, fill it out online and print it off when you need it, maybe give a copy to people who may be trying to help you.

Information on the Choice and Medication website includes:

  • How medicines work: Arranged by medicine and symptoms.
  • Side effects of medication
  • Times to take medication
  • Sexual health impact of medication
  • When to take medication and if you can take it with or without food
  • Information on medicines from fertility to the early years.
  • Handy charts: Tables comparing the main medicines for each condition in an easily-viewed format.
  • Handy fact sheets: On topics where useful summaries are often harder to find such as starting and stopping medicines, LAIs vs oral antipsychotics, driving, side effects (sexual, prolactin, hyponatraemia, weight gain, NMS, serotonin syndrome), sleep etc.

There are five different types of leaflets in accessible formats

    • Brief Information leaflets
    • Extra-Large print
    • Q&As
    • Easier on the eye for e.g. younger people
    • Easy-read leaflets.

Translations are also available in Arabic, Bengali, Farsi, French, Lithuanian, Hindi, Mandarin Chinese, Portuguese, Polish, Punjabi, Romanian, Spanish, Somali, Tagalog, Turkish, Urdu, Vietnamese, Welsh.

Can’t find what you are looking for?

You can find more information on the medicines information page 

Or speak to your CNWL named healthcare worker or call the medicines helpline if you need additional information and support on 020 3317 5090 (Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm) or email medinfo.cnwl@nhs.net

“It’s my lifeline, I call every time I have a question. 10/10 and very useful”