Pamphlet #1

 I Need Your Help

This tool is designed to maximize your chances of establishing a beneficial relationship with your clinician about BZDs.  It gives your prescriber the evidence-based information they need to understand that BZWS exists. It is also an appeal for help from the prescriber. It is accompanied by the “Pamphlet Communication Guide” and its summary.  Together, they provide you with language and specific information designed to both educate and motivate prescribers to form a collaborative partnership with you.  The Pamphlet Communication Guide instructs you on how to approach the prescriber with the pamphlet and talk about it successfully, so that prescribers become more aware of the problems with benzodiazepines and open to discussing matters with you.

Step-by-step instructions for using this tool

 
STEP 1: Review and understand Pamphlet #1:  I Need Your Help.

This tool contains an appeal for dialog and teamwork with you.  You will hand it directly to the prescriber.  It focuses on medical information on           benzodiazepines in a format that prescribers are used to seeing, including primary source documents.  It is important for you to review and understand this      pamphlet before using it.  You do not need to become an expert on the data cited, but you should generally know what it contains.

View or print Pamphlet #1:  I Need Your Help HERE.

STEP 2: Review and understand the Pamphlet Communication Guide.

After you’ve become generally familiar with Pamphlet #1, read the Pamphlet Communication Guide. This document explains how to form a partnership with your prescriber.  You will be more successful in getting your prescriber to team up with you if you follow this guide. It is research-based, and explains how to approach the inevitably unequal relationship with your clinician.  It guides you through presenting the Pamphlet to your prescriber, and the dos and don’ts of establishing trust and respect.  This mutual trust and respect is essential to move your prescriber towards becoming your partner in recovery.  The Pamphlet Communication Guide allows you to prepare in advance to deliver the pamphlet, and provides a guide for its delivery.  It also helps you to decide what to do if the prescriber is reluctant to team up with you.  The Pamphlet Communication Guide is for your use, and not to give to the prescriber.

View or print the Pamphlet Communication Guide HERE.

STEP 3: Review the Pamphlet Communication Guide Summary

This is a brief summary of the most important points of Pamphlet Communications Guide that you reviewed in step 2.   We developed this take-along summary to increase your confidence when asking your prescriber to team up with you.   It also contains, for those who want it, a suggested script for the first introduction of the Pamphlet to the prescriber.  This summary is for your use, and not to give to the prescriber.

View or print the Pamphlet Communication Guide Summary HERE.

STEP 4: Print Pamphlet #1:  I Need Your Help and the Pamphlet Communication Guide Summary and prepare for your appointment.

After completing steps 1-3, it is suggested that you print both the Pamphlet and the Pamphlet Communication Guide Summary to take with you to your appointment with your prescriber. You may want to print a second copy of the Pamphlet for your reference at the appointment.  At the appropriate time in the appointment (see the Pamphlet Communication Guide or its Summary), you will hand one copy of Pamphlet #1 to your prescriber.  You keep the Pamphlet Communication Guide Summary in your own hands to remind you of what you could say and how to say it.