Education

Walmart and Sam’s Club are committed to supporting education programs and initiatives aimed at curbing opioid abuse. This includes providing first-in-class training and education for our pharmacists on pain management, safe prescribing and how to talk to patients about pain disorder and substance abuse disorder.

We also have armed our pharmacists with opioid safety information that is provided to patients when picking up a new acute opioid prescription. Pharmacists provide additional safety counseling about overdose risks and naloxone use to patients who might be at risk of overdose. These educational efforts for patients are already yielding results. Patients are reaching out to tell us the information and tools we provided helped keep them safe – in some cases saving lives.

Walmart believes that youth education is an important part of the fight against prescription drug abuse. In 2018, Walmart joined the Prescription Drug Safety Network, powered by education technology company EVERFI, to bring a powerful prevention education tool to teens in high schools across Arkansas, Colorado, Texas, Indiana, Illinois, and beginning in 2019, in Oklahoma. During the 2018-19 academic year, the Everfi program sponsored by Walmart reached more than 300 schools and more than 25,000 students.

Our company also partnered with the Mark Wahlberg Foundation and the DEA’s Community 360 initiative to sponsor the Wahlberg Foundation’s National Youth Summits on opioid awareness. This program targets middle school students to raise awareness on the dangers of substance abuse and is reaching more than 20,000 students.

Stewardship | Education | Advocacy