Guide for Managing Medications and Prescriptions

What to do when the patient insists on putting his own medication in his daily pill minders each week - and you don't know if they are done correctly or not.

Nancy,
Just allow the person to fill the box. Then at a later time, go back and check for accuracy when the person isn't around. As I'm sure you have discovered, it won't work to try to convince him/her that he/she can't to it.

That works somewhat. My mother keeps trying to fill her own pill containers. When she realizes that she cannot do it, she puts the pills back in their bottles. Last week I found heart pills in her aspirin container. I had to spill out all her pills to make sure there were no more mixups.

In my opinion, it's good for elderly to maintain independence as long as possibily. Sit down with them and see if you can simplify the process. It will be easier for them and more assurance for you. I made a list of meds for for my aunt and we mark each bottle with a 1,2,3 or 4. That way she knows when filling the bottle what pill goes in bkfs, lunch, dinner and bedtime slots. I also learned that you can have some local pharmacies fill a mediset with 2 weeks of pills then deliver them to your loved one. May be more expensive, but at least it will be done correctly. Visiting nurses can also come every 2 weeks to do the task. Depending on insurance company, this should be a benefit.

when they become too disoriented, confused, simplifying the process does not work. I know, I watch my father with his medications. You must supervise them or an accident will happen, they can't remember what and how much they have taken sometimes. Good Luck caregivers.

We have the pharmacy put her medicines in a card where she has to "pop" out each day, it is labeled by the day and we can tell whether or not she is taking them and what day she missed or not. We have suggested this idea to her and she was thrilled that she does not have to figure out what pills go in what day in those plastic day pill containers. Now, we just have to watch to make sure when she does take them out she actually takes them and does not leave them on the table. She does pretty good, sometimes I find some on table or floor, I think she drops them but for the most part this works well!!

In my case, I have small children around all the time, and a soon to be crawling baby, and cannot afford any dropped or misplaced pills.

My applauds to you. I cannot imagine trying to take care of gma with young children also. My children are 11 and 13. I guess they only way you can make sure they are taking their meds as directed and that no children are able to get to them is to administer them personally yourself. Alot of work, do you have someone to help you?

You're sweet. But no one wants to help, since my Dad has become so miserable to be around, and blames everyone but himself for his predicament. He's been in my house for 3 months, going on five years LOL, probably one more month, then off to assisted living to be with others he can relate to LOL.

How are you feeling about him going to assisted living? We need to be thinking about that soon for Gma, she is 88, pretty independent and functionable, just needs help. We are fortunate that Gma is usually in a pretty good mood and agreeable to almost every suggestion we make. Our problem really isn't so much with her and it is with other relatives involved ( or should I say not involved) Gma lives right next door. She travels in the winter to be with her neice and cousin, then returns home from around March-Nov. We handle all of her bills while she is gone, then I "help" her with them when she is here. We sort her mail before giving it to her, otherwise she sends money to every charitable organization that comes along and sends magazines to everyone and pays triple for the subscriptions.

Sorry to go on and on, but it is nice to talk with others who have similar situations. I am praying for you to make it through the next month, hopefully you will survive!! Take care!