Integrate healthcare to provide multidisciplinary consumer-centred medication management: report from a working group formed from the National Stakeholders’ Meeting for the Quality Use of Medicines to Optimise Ageing in Older Australians

A National Stakeholders’ Meeting on Quality use of Medicines to Optimise Ageing in Older Australians was held in Sydney 2015 with the aim of setting an agenda to improve the quality use of medicines for older Australians. Multidisciplinary working groups were formed to address each of the eight key challenges identified. The aim of Working Group 2 was to develop recommendations to integrate the health care of older Australians across settings and practitioners to provide multidisciplinary consumer‐centred care. A systems map was proposed to better understand the complex pathways older Australians take through health care. Working Group 2 members (consumer representatives and health professionals) met via teleconference and email, and contributed relevant literature identified during their work. They identified challenges to optimal medication management that were used to develop a systems map to illustrate the complex medication management pathways for older Australians. The working group generated 10 recommended strategies to facilitate multidisciplinary consumer‐centred care that could improve the quality use of medicines. Medication management in Australia is complex, as highlighted by the systems map. Working Group 2 identified concrete strategies to improve the quality use of medicines by older adults through systemic policy and practice‐based strategies