Benzodiazepine and sedative hypnotics (BSHs) incur significant adverse effects and costs, especially in older adults. Addressing BSH overuse in older adults is therefore an urgent priority to improve patient safety in Europe. However, previous attempts did not lead to large-scale reduction in use.
The goal of BE-SAFE (Implementing a patient-centred and evidence-based intervention to reduce BEnzodiazepine and sedative-hypnotic use to improve patient SAFEty and quality of care) is to improve patient safety by addressing knowledge and practice gaps related to the reduction of BSHs used for sleep difficulties in Europe.
The interdisciplinary BE-SAFE consortium brings together countries with different healthcare systems, clinical pathways, and levels of wealth from diverse parts of Europe (Belgium, Greece, Norway, Poland, Spain, Switzerland) and Canada. The project mobilises international experts in guideline development and validation, case studies, geriatrics, implementation, pharmacotherapy, psychology, sleep and neurology and dissemination and communication.
BE-SAFE collaborates with patient organisations (Advisory Board), deprescribing.org, Choosing Wisely (including 17 European countries), OECD and Cochrane Sustainable Healthcare, to organise and conduct networking and joint activities to support implementation, communication and dissemination of its approach in an appropriate language to all important audiences.
BE-SAFE is coordinated by Pr Anne Spinewine from the Clinical pharmacy research group (CLIP) of Université catholique de Louvain (UCLouvain). The other partners involved are:
- Institute of Psychiatry and Neurology – IPIN (Warsaw, Poland)
- Fundació Salut i Envelliment – FsiE (Barcelona, Spain)
- Oslo University Hospital – OUS (Oslo, Norway)
- MAGIC Evidence Ecosystem Foundation – MAGIC (Oslo, Norway)
- University of Athens – NKUA (Athens, Greece)
- University of Bern – UBERN (Bern, Switzerland)
- tp21 GmbH - TP21 (Berlin, Germany)
BE-SAFE is supported by the European Union's Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under the grant agreement No 101057123, and by the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI) (contract No 22.00116). Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or of the SERI. Neither the European Union nor the SERI can be held responsible for them.
