Walmart provides interactive drug safety site

Walmart is stepping up its virtual efforts to combat prescription drug abuse.

The discount titan is marking the start of National Substance Abuse Prevention Month and National Medicine Abuse Awareness Month with the launch of a new website designed to provide an interactive learning solution with access to prescription drug safety and mental health resources. Known as “Safe and Well,” the site is free to anyone through Walmart’s relationship with social-impact education organization EVERFI Inc.

Walmart’s intends its new mobile-friendly wellness resource to provide associates, patients, caregivers and community members with necessary information to better understand the risks of prescription medication misuse and the connections to mental health. In May 2020, the retailer created a virtual reality (VR) tool for training first responders to recognize and respond to an opioid overdose.

Safe & Well uses videos, interactive scenarios and self-guided activities covering topics like reading and understanding a prescription bottle label and medication guide; responsible use, storage and disposal of prescription medication; recognizing opioid misuse and opioid use disorder; mental health awareness; strategies for seeking support for a mental health challenge; and coping techniques.

“We are seeing people struggle with unprecedented levels of personal stress and restricted access to support networks in communities across the country as a result of the pandemic, which can ultimately compromise health and many other important aspects of people’s lives,” said Dr. Thomas Van Gilder, Walmart chief medical officer. “Our hope is that the new Safe & Well tool will be an accessible and valuable source of information for people at risk of prescription drug misuse and those who care about them.”