Medication Cleanout is an effort of the North Texas Poison Center of Parkland Health and Hospital Systems and the City of Dallas Sanitation Services. Personnel includes nursing student volunteers, law enforcement volunteers, and pharmacy or pharmacy student volunteers.

This is a periodic one-day event in which consumers are encouraged to clean out their medicine cabinets to remove expired, unused, and no longer needed medications. These items should then be brought to the Medication Cleanout locations for appropriate disposal.

The goals of the project are to prevent poisonings, prevent abuse, prevent misuse, and protect the environment. Poisonings, abuse, and misuse often occur when people store old medications in their homes. The presence of these items makes them accessible to young children who may be poisoned by them. Older children and teens may abuse these products or experiment with them for non-medical reasons. Adults and the elderly may save medications, such as antibiotics, for use at a later date. This is called misuse and can lead to antibiotic resistance as well as a delay in treatment of a condition that may be harmful. Often, when people choose to get rid of their medications, they may flush them down the toilet which can lead to contamination of our water supply. By bringing medications to this event, we can prevent all of this!

Visit our website @ http://medicationcleanout.com/MCODallas.aspx to find out more information about this program.

• Medical/Health Care Experience: * Details for this event will be provided at the required training session, but a general overview is also provided here. * Volunteers will report to the Volunteer Check-In table on arrival to the event. * If any of their paperwork is incomplete, they will be asked to complete it at that point. * Volunteers will be provided an event vest and are expected to wear the vest while serving at the event. This will help us identify who can enter the secure area in the building. * A name badge will also be provided and must be worn throughout the event. * Volunteers can expect to be assigned to any of the positions described in the job descriptions. * Some of the positions require standing on your feet for long periods and a few require repeatedly transporting meds from the parking lot receiving area to the indoor sorting area. * Once a volunteer has checked in and received their name badge, they should report to their assigned area and remain there through conclusion of the event or until directed otherwise. * Some of the positions are tedious and for this reason, we will make every effort to rotate these positions periodically. * Relief personnel will be available to allow volunteers to take restroom or refreshment breaks. * Refreshments will be provided for all volunteers. * The temperature outside may be hot, so please dress accordingly and drink plenty of water. * This event will still be held if inclement weather occurs, so be prepared with rain gear if it is predicted to rain. We will not require volunteers to continue working outside if dangerous weather conditions are present (i.e. tornado warning, cloud-to-ground lightning, etc.) * At conclusion of the event, volunteers should return their name badges and vests to the check-in/check-out table. * Anyone who would like to assist with break-down will be offered the opportunity to do so and would be greatly appreciated!