Australia’s cost-of-living crisis is pushing more people into housing insecurity, and with it, a silent medication safety crisis is unfolding. In this vital session, Dr. Marianne Jauncey explores the barriers to safe medicine use among people experiencing homelessness, including challenges with addiction, adherence, and access. Learn how pharmacists and health professionals across all settings can play a meaningful role in harm minimisation, advocacy, and rethinking care for society’s most vulnerable.

This presentation will address the following learning objectives:

• Describe how housing instability, poverty, and substance use affect medication access, adherence, and health outcomes.
• Explain how to engage to overcome these barriers while maintaining the patient's dignity and agency, and with a trauma-informed care approach.
• Identify practical strategies pharmacists can use to improve medicine access, storage, and safety for people experiencing homelessness, displacement or financial stress.
• Identify systemic and policy-level barriers to medicine access and how advocacy or reform efforts are evolving.
• Identify relevant support services or funding pathways that assist patients at risk of medication nonadherence due to housing or cost issues.