Prescription Opioid Safety Toolkit

The Opioid Safety Toolkit was developed through a rigorous, multiphase national co-design process involving 42 stakeholders, including consumers, healthcare professionals, and advocacy groups. This collaborative approach ensured that the Toolkit was created with and for both those prescribed opioids and those who prescribe or dispense them, while maintaining a consumer-focused design.

The process included distinct phases: first, identifying barriers consumers face in engaging with opioid safety behaviours; second, exploring key touchpoints in consumers’ prescription opioid journeys; and third, iteratively designing and testing solutions to empower safety behaviours — specifically obtaining naloxone, creating personalised safety plans, and discussing opioid use and any concerns with healthcare professionals.

Extensive workshops and user testing sessions refined content, language, and usability, prioritising non-stigmatising, relevant, and tailored information. The service model connects consumers, pharmacists, and healthcare professionals through a layered, co-designed approach supporting engagement at multiple touchpoints. Consumers typically receive an SMS with Toolkit access at opioid dispensing, sent via integration with pharmacy prescribing software. These messages were co-designed to be supportive and motivating.

Additional pharmacy flyers and posters encourage conversations about opioid safety. Pharmacists underwent a dedicated pre-launch education phase to build confidence in stocking naloxone and initiating discussions, supported by webinars, articles, and a dedicated microsite.

To date, over 2,000 pharmacies nationally have agreed to disseminate the Toolkit, and automated SMS integration that provides a link to the Toolkit at the point of opioid supply now facilitates ongoing consumer engagement. This coordinated service model creates a feedback loop where consumers are prompted to act, pharmacists are equipped to respond, and both are supported through consistent, co-designed messaging.

The Toolkit has been accessed over 65,000 times and contributed to a 23% increase in naloxone stocking in Australian pharmacies, demonstrating strong professional execution and exceeding the design brief’s goals.

The Opioid Safety Toolkit satisfies and exceeds the criteria for good design through a human-centred, evidence-based approach that prioritises the needs of end-users in terms of functionality, accessibility, safety, and aesthetic sensitivity. Developed using an iterative co-design process with 42 stakeholders including consumers with lived experience, healthcare professionals, and advocacy groups, the design process is grounded in both behavioural science and the Double Diamond design process. This approach ensured the Toolkit was not only practical and intuitive but respectful of users’ lived experiences.

The design prioritises user safety by empowering individuals to engage in three evidence-based behaviours: obtaining freely available naloxone, making a safety plan, and discussing their use of opioids, including any concerns with their healthcare professionals.

Aesthetically, the Toolkit is visually calm, non-stigmatising, and easy to navigate, with user-tested language and layouts that support engagement rather than evoke feelings of stigma or fear. Curated imagery and video content in the Toolkit carefully reflect pain experiences and needs of consumers with chronic pain by using vector-based images rather than real-life photographs, which can cause pain flares.

The co-designed communication strategy supporting the dissemination of the Toolkit ensures consistent messaging across digital and physical environments to support consumers and healthcare professionals. The Toolkit and its dissemination exemplify how inclusive, co-designed tools can be integrated into everyday health services to drive behaviour change and reduce harm.

The Toolkit itself is internationally unique and has been presented over 15 times, including invited presentations, at leading Australian and international conferences such as the Australian Pain Society, Pharmaceutical Society of Australia, Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, and the College on Problems of Drug Dependence.

The design of the Toolkit sets a new benchmark for innovation in Service Design practice, using a novel co-design approach to address intractable prescription opioid safety risks. Naloxone, an opioid overdose antidote, is freely available in Australian pharmacies through a $10 million government initiative, and evidence-based information about opioid risks is accessible to the public. Yet, an estimated 98% of intended recipients did not access naloxone, and prescription opioid overdoses continue to cause significant personal, social, and economic harm.

The Opioid Safety Toolkit is an innovative way to increase consumer awareness of and empowerment to access naloxone. It is non-stigmatising, provides tailored information, and is available in pharmacies during prescription dispensing. The Toolkit is an interactive resource offering activities, tools, and information to support opioid safety behaviours.

For example, it directs users to personalised content based on their needs (e.g. different user-flows for carers vs. long-term consumers); prompts development of a downloadable safety plan; delivers information via text and video; includes a guide for naloxone emergency use; and, for long-term users, provides a downloadable Routine Opioid Outcome Monitoring tool to support annual medication reviews.

The Toolkit’s design is the result of a novel co-design approach that combines behavioural science frameworks with the Double Diamond design process. Developed by the design team, this ground-breaking method ensures the digital health technology is evidence-based (drawing on a decade of research), rooted in proven behaviour change techniques, and, most importantly, contextually relevant and easily integrated into the broader health system.

The novel co-design approach is world first and has subsequently been presented at international conferences (e.g. as the Early Career Researcher keynote at the European Implementation Event) and has been accepted for publication in the top-ranking international journal Frontiers in Digital Health.

The Opioid Safety Toolkit delivers measurable, lasting impact for people using prescription opioids, pharmacists, and broader public health. Co-designed with key stakeholders and tested in a randomised controlled trial (RCT), the Toolkit significantly increased knowledge (by 41%), and the proportion unaware of naloxone dropped by 91%. Consumers demonstrated significantly higher opioid safety knowledge and reported strong behavioural change: one in three obtained naloxone within four weeks — more than double the number who requested naloxone compared to the control group, who received access to an existing opioid information website. This demonstrates that behaviour changes and actions prompted by the Toolkit can save lives.

Designed with adaptability and longevity in mind, the Toolkit exists as a standalone, updateable web resource, cross-linked by trusted organisations (e.g. Pharmaceutical Society of Australia, PainAustralia) and embedded in professional and public platforms. It supports scalable future implementation across other digital health settings.

Consumer feedback exemplifies inclusive and human-centred design. It overcomes stigma and empowers action through non-judgemental, clear, and user-friendly design. As one participant noted:

“Super user friendly with clear, relevant information… non-judgemental and practical.”

Others shared:

“It encouraged me to obtain naloxone for safety.”
“I’ve been putting it off… but know it’s the right thing to do, especially with children in the house.”

The Toolkit reduces burden on busy pharmacists by supporting structured, consistent conversations. Its accessible design has the potential to be replicated in other areas of medicines safety.

The investment in collaborative design and partnership with medicines experts has delivered real-world health impact, driven engagement, and created a scalable, adaptable platform. An exemplar of service design, it inspires demand for thoughtful, person-centred tools that contribute to safer, more informed, and more empowered consumers.