Is Your Mom Taking More Medications Than You Can Keep Track Of?
The Kaiser Family Foundation surveyed Americans age 65 or older. Of those to respond, 54% of them say they take at least four prescription medications each day. If you help your home manage her medications, it gets hard keeping track of them all.
What can you do to help with medication management? You don’t want to forget anything, but there are so many prescription and non-prescription medications on her list. Here are some tips to make it easier for your family.
Go Over Each Medication
Go over the medications your mom takes and find out why she’s taking them. You want doctors to communicate with other doctors, but mistakes get made.
If your mom’s primary care physician has her on an anti-depressant and her memory care doctor adds an anti-anxiety and anti-psychotic medication, she may be taking too many pills. Ask questions. If you don’t understand the answer, keep asking questions.
Use an App
A mobile app may help you keep track of her medications. Many are free and help with medication reminders and link you to tools to see why your mom is taking it. You can use these apps to track how many pills are left and when refills should be ordered.
The other benefit to an app is that some also check prices at area and online pharmacies to make sure your mom is getting the best price. Find them in your mobile phone’s app store.
Invest in a Pill Organizer
Buy a pill organizer that can be set up to cover a month’s worth of doses. Many have timers and alarms that make it hard to ignore when it’s time to take a pill. Until they’re removed from the compartment the light or alarm keeps going off.
The benefit to these organizers is that you know if the compartment is empty that the pills have been taken. The next day is locked, so your mom can’t double a dosage accidentally.
Create a To-Do List
Write out a daily to-do list on a whiteboard. Use a permanent marker to prevent the list from getting erased. When a task is done, use the dry erase marker to cross it off or put a check by it.
If you have a Google Home or similar device, you can create reminders on that. As you do things, click the button to mark that they’ve been completed.
Don’t Overlook Medication Reminder Services
You have your own chores to do, so you can’t devote hours every day to your mom’s medications. Have you considered home care?
Home care services include medication reminders. Work with professional caregivers to make sure your mom takes medications on time every day. You may not be able to help her out each day. Home care makes sure she never misses a dose of something that helps keep her healthy.
If you or an aging loved one are considering Home Care in Keyport, NJ, please contact the caring staff at Lares Home Care 888-492-3538 or 732-566-1112.
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