MPC Joins “Share Your Place” Pilot Project, Encourages Families to Practice Safe Medicine Storage

Pilot social media photo sharing program offers families opportunity to share "their place" where medicines and vitamins are safely stored at home.

By: Malissa Carroll
Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Throughout the month of June, the Maryland Poison Center (MPC) is partnering with the Up and Away campaign for its "Share Your Place" pilot social media photo sharing program. This program, intended to engage families about the importance of safely storing medicines in the home, asks parents and caregivers to take photos of the place where medicines and vitamins are stored in their home and share them on Twitter or Instagram using the hashtag #MedsUpAway.

"The MPC is excited to participate in this new initiative and help kick-start a conversation about safe medicine storage," says Angel Bivens, RPh, MBA, CSPI, public education coordinator for the MPC. "Approximately 60,000 children in the United States visit the emergency room each year because they got into medicines that were left within reach. We hope that programs like this help educate families, both locally and nationally, about the importance of safely storing medicines out of the reach of young children."

The "Share Your Place" program aims to leverage the popularity of social media websites, such as Facebook and Twitter, to help educate families about safe medicine storage and prevent future poisonings. To participate in this program, parents and caregivers are asked to share "their place" where medicines and vitamins are safely stored at home by posting photos of the place tagged with #MedsUpAway on Twitter and Instagram, two of the most popular photo sharing social media sites.