With two epinephrine auto-injector suppliers currently in Canada, everyone should be able to access devices. Follow our recommendations to help ensure you get access.
Learn more on how you can Shine a light for Halloween by participating in our new Canadian campaign! We also have lots of tips and tricks for you to ensure you have a happy and safe Halloween.
Participate in our website research, we need your help to determine how to organize content on our website. Take our 5-minute survey so we can improve on how we serve you! Plus, download the new Kung Food app, a brand new game for youth with food allergies.
Accessing epinephrine auto-injectors
As of September 7th, temporary AUVI-Q® epinephrine auto-injectors were made available across pharmacies in Canada. To better understand your recent experiences in accessing devices since that time, we asked you to complete a quick survey. Thank you for providing your feedback!
From the survey, you told us:
- You had challenges in filling your prescriptions for epinephrine auto-injectors
- Limits were placed on the number of devices you received, and some of you still weren’t able to access a device
- Pharmacists weren’t aware of AUVI-Q availability
- AUVI-Q coverage was limited by some private benefit plans (e.g. insurance companies, employers, etc.)
- Pharmacists asked you for a prescription for each device
With two suppliers currently in the market, everyone should be able to get devices. We recommend following these steps to ensure you get access:
- Ask your pharmacist if epinephrine auto-injectors (e.g. EpiPen® and AUVI-Q) are available in-store. If they aren’t available, provide them with the product identification numbers (e.g. DIN numbers) so the products can be ordered:
[table id=3 /] - If you have private insurance coverage, check with your insurance provider to see if all auto-injectors (e.g. EpiPen and AUVI-Q) are covered. If the devices are not covered, you can request coverage.
- If you have public/government coverage, the provinces are covering both EpiPen and AUVI-Q.
- You may be required to have a prescription for AUVI-Q. Ask your allergist or physician for a prescription that includes both EpiPen and AUVI-Q on the same prescription, so you don’t have to go back to your physician.
- Continue to follow our safety tips for managing food allergies and preventing reactions.
We are advocating for ongoing access to epinephrine auto-injectors on your behalf and will continue to work closely with Health Canada, alternate providers, and other key stakeholders on this issue.
Shine a light on food allergies with our new Halloween campaign
Check out our new, national Halloween campaign called “Shine a light”. Our campaign is helping to increase food allergy awareness and spark conversations on how everyone can support kids with food allergies for Halloween.
Our objective is to build broader-based understanding of food allergies and to let the general public know how they can support kids and make Halloween an inclusive and safe holiday for those with food allergies.
Thanks to PUBLIC Inc, MediaCity, Captivate Network, and Adapt Media for their phenomenal support in helping to bring this campaign to life!
Here’s how you can Shine a light:
- Be a part of the movement
- Support our awareness and education campaign at GoFundMe.com/ShineATealLight.
- Wear our customized glow-in-the-dark teal “Shine a light” bracelets. Perfect for kids and adults alike, and you don’t have to have food allergies to wear them. By wearing this teal bracelet you are shining a light for your support of food allergy education and awareness.
- Have a teal light or DIY teal lantern on your front porch on Halloween night to let kids know that there are non-food treats or allergy-friendly treats available at your house.
- Be different. Make a difference. – Fundraise for our Shine a light campaign with these different event ideas. We need your help to drive awareness and education this Halloween season!
Also, be sure to check out our tips and resources to help you have an awesome Halloween
- Tips to keep kids safe – Learn how to stay safe when trick-or-treating and at Halloween parties and discover what you can do with the candies afterwards.
- Free resources – Use our resources to display how you are keeping Halloween safe for all, whether that’s with shining a teal light, having candy alternatives at your door, or raising funds – we have many free resources for you to download and share, including posters and flyers, activity sheets, social icons, and more!
Visit our Halloween section at foodallergycanada.ca/Halloween for more tips and tricks!
Watch our campaign video and please share!
We want your feedback: Help us improve our website
To help serve you better, we are contemplating some changes to our website. Prior to making any changes, we want to better understand the perspective of users and potential users.
To this end, we have engaged Q30 Design Inc., a third-party website development firm, to conduct a brief survey on potential website navigation to gather your feedback. Please be assured that all your responses will remain anonymous and only aggregate data will be used.
The survey will take approximately 5 minutes to complete.
To begin, simply click on the link below. If you have any questions or trouble completing this survey, please email us at info@foodallergycanada.ca.
Thank you in advance for your feedback! Your input is instrumental in helping us improve how we serve you.
Just launched: New app for youth and teens
The Children’s Allergy & Asthma Education Centre (CAAEC) from Manitoba is excited to announce the launch of a new app called “Kung Food” for youth and teens with food allergies.
Aimed to improve knowledge and skills for youth living with food allergies, Kung Food features allergy trivia, allergy simulations, and personalized allergy alerts that can be texted to friends and family.
Kung Food includes the following elements:
- Food Allergy I.Q. tests
- Winning a black belt in the dojo by correctly answering questions
- Ability to send customized allergy alerts to family and friends, which contains information about the youth’s food allergies
- Topics on school, bullying, restaurants, travel, friends, partying, dating, stress and frustration
- A link to Food Allergy Canada’s Ultimate Food Allergy Guide for Teens
Download Kung Food for free from the App store and Google Play store.
The Kung Food App was developed as a collaboration between the CAAEC team with input from teens with food allergy and Food Allergy Canada and their Youth Advisory Panel. Funding for this app was provided by AllerGen-Allergy Genes and the Environment Network. CAAEC wishes to thank the Children’s Hospital Foundation of Manitoba for funding for development of a food allergy education program and multimedia initiatives that led to development of this app by Tactica Interactive.
Tags: auvi-q, EpiPen, Halloween, kung food app, shortage, survey, website