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I'm worried about my mother as she is on a number of medications and I discovered today that she only takes them occasionally..."when she feels bad." Is there any service out there that will help remind her to be taking her meds? It would also be great if they could ask her how she's doing, because she doesn't always go to the doctor soon enough. To be sure something like this exists, right?

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There are medicine dispensers that you can set up for your Mom. The carousel turns at the time you set and open up. A bell/buzzer rings until your Mom opens the chute. (I guess she could still skip the step of actually swallowing the pills!) This worked for my Mom until we got an aide to help with that. The machine I used was also available with a reminder call to you (or whomever) if the medicine wasn't opened. In addition, there are senior services that could set the dispenser up if you are at a distance and they also accompany seniors to appointments and report back to you.
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Is your Mother with you or in a different location? Perhaps you should go with her to doctor and get an updated list of what meds and when she is supposed to take them.
If she has a cell phone, iPhone or computer, you can program the calendar with a reminder. If she is not able to respond to that, and if you cannot trust her to take the meds, then maybe she needs more supervision. Maybe she does not need the meds. Who knows, but the Doctor. Time to evaluate her condition and follow up.
Maybe start with a companion to check on her for a couple of hours a day? Hugs:)
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Is it possible for you to call her when she needs to take her meds? That's what my sister & I did until it was obvious Dad needed even more help. I take it she does not live in your home. You can hire an in home health service, like Home Instead. It does sound like your mom needs more assistance. I can tell you are a very concerned daughter. Good luck to you!
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I have a free app on my cell phone that I use. I'm able to enter the medications that I'm supposed to be taking at specific times and when I take it I mark it as taken. Now if I miss one it's got a feature where you can put in a contact person and if I fail to take the medication it calls that caregiver to let them know that I have not taken my medicine and then they can call me back and remind me to take it. It helps me because if I have marked it off I know that I have taken it and if I don't I have the back up knowing that my sister will give me a call to remind me. You might want to check to see what apps you have on your cell phone. Of course this only works if you have a cell phone to pull app from. Best of all it's free and you don't pay anybody for the service.
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Hi,

I was in a similar situation a year ago when my mother in law was diagnosed with Alzheimer. She is on a rather complicated medication schedule and she started to forget what and when to take. I have looked online for some simple solutions. Especially I did not want her to handle any new kind of (electronic) device because at this stage it is impossible for her to start using anything new. I found a really cool service called memo24 (I think it is developed by a European company) where basically the service will call you on your regular phone and play a message that you have previously set up. It has also a cool alert feature where it will alert me by email/sms if my mother in law does not pick up or confirm the reception of the call. I have been using it for the past 5 months now, and I can tell it is working :-).

you can check it out on www.memo24.net

Hope this will help.
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A good place to find a reminder service is carecheckers. I used them for a relative and they provided a great affordable service that helped her remember to take her medicine. They have different plans available and their calls are made by live people. I highly recommend them. Good Luck
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I had this same issue with my aunt.
She is supposed to take her thyroid medication on an empty stomach first thing in the morning. The remainder of her meds could be taken later in the morning. We had a series of missteps before I finally realized I had to get her help for first thing in the morning. I had tried calling. She would say she had taken the pills already when she hadn't. She would take them twice sometimes. She would listen to my message and ignore the instructions. Now she not only gets her meds at the right time and everyday but she also gets a hot breakfast, help with dressing, laundry, a short walk and interaction with a friendly face two hours each day. In trying to conserve her funds for when she really needs them ( she's 90!) I was overlooking that she needed more help now. She's recently become incontinent so I see another layer of care coming soon. I thought it was just the pills she needed help with but realistically she needed more care.
I also have home health come in. They take her vitals at least three times a week (nurse and aid). This helps me know that the pills are being taken as her bp will be elevated if she hasn't had the pills. They log the readings in each week. When I go once a week to spend the night, I check the log. I've also considered cameras. Lots of good suggestions here. It just depends on the level of care your mom needs. I count it a success if whatever method implemented lasts for awhile. It's all temporary, like us.
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You can use an automated phone call reminder service to make automatic phone calls with the medication name and dosage at the required time. If your mother doesn't answer you will get notification to your phone. You setup the reminders from the internet or using a mobile app and your mother just need to answer the phone, she doesn't need to get used to a new device. The service is called Medication call reminder for the caregiver and this is the link to the site http://www.medcallreminder.com.
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assistant for busy people will do personalized phone calls. I use their service and i just love the personal service she gives
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I am finding that my mom is too confused in the assisted living to remember to take pills, and maybe takes them improperly. I searched and am considering a service called med minder systems. About $65/mo. service. I would rather buy a box, but none of them are locked. My mom needs the beeping reminder, but also needs the rest locked till the day she needs them or she keeps opening the box and takes them again, as she does not remember taking them. If anyone has seen such a pill box let me know.
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