If your parents or grandparents are elderly, you know how medications are a vital part of their daily lives. Over ninety percent of older adults have at least one known chronic medical condition, resulting in daily doses of prescription medications. Keeping track of these medications and their instructions for use is an important task that many elderly people cannot perform themselves. If you provide an elder help with medication, there are a few helpful tips to practice.
Create a Medication List- Find out which medications your loved one takes daily and write them down into the form of a list. This includes not only prescription medications but daily medications as well. Household remedies and daily vitamins should be included in this list so that everything is covered.
Pay Close Attention to Labels- Make sure that ingredients found in prescription labels aren’t being repeatedly taken in other daily medications. Doubling dosage can be dangerous and cause health concerns. Also, make sure to follow instructions on labels for correct dosage times and amounts.
Ask a Pharmacist- Once your list is completed, check your loved one’s pharmacist. They can double check for medication redundancy and make sure that your list is complete. They may also have suggestions for over the counter remedies for problems that arise before a doctor’s appointment.
Keep Organized- Elderly patients can have multiple prescriptions written by many different doctors. Create a dosage schedule so that your loved one will know what time to take their pills. Eliminate out of date prescriptions and remove any that a physician or pharmacist encourages to refrain from.
Make it Easy- The older you get, the harder it gets to take more than 10 pills at a time. Ask your loved one’s pharmacist if there are other ways of medicinal intake if a problem with swallowing develops. Many medication have alternate forms of ingestion. Some may be able to be crushed up and mixed with food or come as a liquid form.
Don’t Alter- It can be damaging when a person decides not to take medication that has been prescribed by a doctor. For this reason, you should never alter the dosage schedule of your loved one’s medication. If you feel that a medication should be taken less frequently or removed altogether, ask a doctor before making decisions.
Easy Access- Make medication scheduling easy and convenient with a pillbox. Designs even include electronic pillboxes that come with alarm that can be set to when medication needs to be taken. Pillboxes make it easy to keep track of medication use weeks, or even months at a time.
Change as Directed- As life keeps changing, so will medication use. Doctors will change your loved one’s prescriptions and advice different methods. Alter your medication scheduling and list as these changes occur.
Financial Prescription Help with Medication
We understand that medications can become expensive, especially if you have to take multiple doses and medications daily. If you or your elderly loved one could use some financial help with medication cost, The RX Helper.com was designed with you in mind. We provide prescription assistance programs for those who have little or no prescription medication coverage provided by health insurance. To see if you qualify for help with medication, visit our website.
