Medication Management

As people age and medications increase it is becoming more and more difficult to keep them straight and to remember when to take them. This coupled with the pills changing shapes, colors, and sizes can add to the confusion. If you know of someone who is having difficulties, here are a few suggestions:

• When my mom was having difficulty remembering to take her medications I used an automated phone call service called MYCALLS.NET. The system will deliver an automated call, with your voice on it, at the time and day you wish. You can view your account to make sure the call was delivered. The site is a little cumbersome to work through, but is very reliable and cost effective.
• Your pharmacist can put on the label what the medication is used for. This is helpful when the pills change shapes, size, and color.
• Ask your pharmacist if they can "bubble pack" the pills. This method groups dosages on a card - morning, afternoon, and evenings. You punch them out based on when they are to be taken. This provides a visual cue to make sure they were taken.
• The weekly containers work well also, provided there are no memory issues. People with confusion may not recall what day it is, resulting in overdosing.

If dementia is involved, I highly recommend locking up medications and leaving out only the daily dosage. Usually what happens is they will take the pills they need, but then will forget they already have taken them and will seek out more resulting in overdosing.