Addressing the disparity of health and wellness experienced by Australia’s most vulnerable and at-risk individuals
WISE Choice™ is a program that ensures usable wellness items are put to purpose wisely, reducing environmental waste while enabling equitable access to free essential items for priority populations through trusted pharmacist engagement.
Reducing waste and enabling equitable access for priority populations
Not-for-profit Wellness Partners Foundation delivers WISE Choice via trauma-informed, healing-aware Equity Care Onsite Pharmacists (ECOPs).
The problem:
Australian pharmacies, aged care facilities, hospitals and clinics, discard large volumes of usable wellness items that enter landfill.
At the same time, many individuals and families face significant financial and social barriers to accessing these same essential items, undermining health outcomes and impacting dignity and quality of life.
People experiencing homelessness face significant health disadvantage, including higher rates of chronic disease, with evidence indicating a life-expectancy gap of up to 33 years compared with the general population.
The WISE Choice™ solution:
WISE Choice provides a person-centred pathway for non-medicated wellness items to be redirected for equitable access by priority populations, while enabling a dignified point of engagement with healthcare via a trusted ECOP.
Participating healthcare sites collect eligible items through the onsite WISE bins. The bin and items are managed under pharmacist governance and transferred to a partner pharmacy co-located within a community support hub serving priority populations.
There, the embedded ECOP supports ‘customers’ to make their product choices and access essential wellness items at no cost, in a setting that ensures dignity, respect and prompts deeper and ongoing engagement with people who might otherwise fall through the gaps in our healthcare system.
Suitable wellness items for collection:
- Health and wellness products commonly found in a pharmacy’s front-of-shop and in supermarket aisles (e.g. skin and personal care products, first aid and wound care items, baby care, nutrition, sexual health products)
- Pharmacy aids and basic health devices (e.g. medication organisers, spacers, monitoring equipment)
- Personal care, hygiene, continence and daily living products (soaps, toiletries, oral care, feminine hygiene)
- Items deemed suitable for use based on pharmacist judgement, and WISE Committee designed principles.
Make the WISE Choice:
We invite participation from partners seeking to reduce waste and contribute a more equitable health system.
Who WISE Choice™ serves:
WISE Choice supports people experiencing primary or secondary homelessness, financial hardship or health inequity. Access is provided to eligible Foundation endorsed ‘customers’ and coordinated with community partners to ensure dignity, safety and meaningful impact.