4 Ways To Organize Medications

Aging seniors who have health issues or concerns typically take prescribed medications, on an everyday basis. This can range from a few medications, to many various ones. It is likely that aging seniors still require taking certain medications, even if they do not have serious health concerns. This is because, overall, a senior's physical health will naturally decline as they age and their bodies change.

For example, an aging loved one may start to experience pains and aches from simple movements, such as getting out of a chair, or walking around the house. These activities may start to become more difficult and painful than they used to be. These naturally developing symptoms will likely result in the integration of additional medications in aim to treat the symptoms of an aging senior. 

Seniors generally take more medications, whether they are over-the-counter, supplements, or prescriptions. Therefore, appropriately managing the medications of seniors is essential for their physical well-being, as their daily medication regime may be more complex and extensive. There are also numerous other reasons why properly managing seniors medications is important. For one, because aging seniors typically use numerous medications, the risk of drug interactions becomes higher, increasing the potential for other symptoms to arise.

Additionally, as one ages, their kidney and liver may not work as well as it used to. This decline in function can significantly affect how medication operates, is absorbed, and broken down by a seniors body. If medication doses are not closely monitored or properly adjusted, medications may stay in the body for longer, resulting in unwanted side effects. The list of concerns in relation to medication management for seniors goes on.

Lastly, it is important to note that impaired hearing, vision, memory, and other cognitive issues may make it difficult for seniors to remember and understand their daily medication routine, especially for aging loved ones who have a complicated regime. In addition, many aging seniors experience a decline in mobility, strength, and memory lapses. There are all factors which can result in a seniors failure to take their medication as prescribed. 

Part of a caregivers role within home care services is to monitor their client’s intake of medication, and this is one of their most important duties. It is very common for seniors to have an extensive everyday medication routine. An inability to complete their daily routine can be extremely detrimental to an aging seniors health. Caregivers have a responsibility to make sure that their client is keeping up with their medication routines because often, a senior is required to consume certain medications at various times throughout their day. In addition, their various medications likely require different dosages.

It is possible for things to go wrong when aging seniors start to take more medications. Adverse drug reactions can occur from medications, and seniors can develop problems from certain medications if their pharmacists, doctors, and health care professionals lack adequate communication skills or ignore important precautionary measures. Therefore, caregivers also play a role in preventing these errors. Since caregivers are often the ones prescribing and administering medication, they must know all the facts. Educating themselves with medication can counteract crossover reactions, adverse medication reactions, allergic reactions, and overdoses. This type of education refers to knowing the medical history of their client, and communicating with their clients health care provider. These medical history records include immunizations, allergies, surgeries, and family health history. Caregivers should even note social changes, as they can tie into important medical information. This includes work schedules, special diets, or sleeping patterns. 

It is clear that managing an aging seniors medications involves many responsibilities. One of the most important things caregivers must ensure when managing medication is organization, as it is fundamental in order to avoid medication errors. However, this role can become complex and overwhelming when accounting for the accuracy of medication dosages, frequencies, and other details. Therefore, here are 4 ways to organize medications of your aging senior. 

Pill Cases

1. Maintaining an updated medication list

When caring for an aging loved one, it is extremely important to keep an updated list of all their medications. The same goes for over-the-counter medications, supplements, and vitamins. This is not only important because it acts as a reminder for caregivers, it also ensures that a senior’s nurses and doctors have the right information when you bring your aging loved one to the doctors. Up-to-date medication lists are used as reference to properly treat problems and symptoms that affect an aging senior. For example, a senior may deal with high blood pressure. In order to treat this, their doctor needs to see what their patient has been prescribed because it is possible for problems to be caused by medications.

It is also important for caregivers to keep medication lists that are updated to their client because although doctors usually have a list of their own, it is often either out-of-date, or incomplete. This is more likely to happen if an aging senior is taking more than a couple of medications, or if they visit more than one health care professional. Caregivers should therefore never assume that doctors will have a complete updated list of their clients medications.

In order to keep a medication list that can be updated efficiently, it should be easy and quick to update, and should be easy to print for nurses and doctors. Word and excel spreadsheets are excellent tools to do this, and works well for many caregivers. Here, caregivers can utilize the table format, with names of the medications, dosage amounts, and instructions for taking the medications placed in clearly laid out column’s. 

2. Medication Reminders

Medication reminders are often used by both caregivers, and for aging seniors that do not receive 24/7 care and may be on their own for some time of the day. If seniors do not have around-the-clock care, remembering to take their medications at the right time and with the right dosage can be difficult as they become more susceptible to forget taking their medications as they age.

In-home caregivers also typically use reminders for when it is time for their client to take their medications. Caregivers have numerous duties and responsibilities, and want to prevent losing track of anything. It can be hard for anyone to remember their daily medication regime, especially for ones that change constantly. It is easy to take medications incorrectly without using reminders. For example, for most aging seniors and even caregivers, it is usually hard to remember when a certain dose was taken or if it was taken at all. If this is an uncertainty, there is a risk of multiple doses to be taken or skipped completely.

Medication reminders aid caregivers or aging seniors in taking their everyday medications at the correct times, and in the correct doses. Medication reminders can eliminate missed doses and can further reduce the risk of allergic reactions, unsafe drug interactions, and other side effects that can result in potentially disastrous outcomes. There are many reminder apps that can be downloaded onto the devices of caregivers and seniors.

In addition, if seniors rely on themselves for taking their medications, they can use care technology to ensure medication compliance, and this can confirm when medication is taken. Care technology can also alert on-call advisors if a video or phone call is needed. These reminder apps and platforms are often able to create customized alerts, chart medication compliance, and share reports with medical teams. 

Medication List

3. Pill Organizers

If you or your aging senior takes various types of medications everyday, a pill organizer can be extremely helpful. As a senior ages, typically, they will start taking more than one prescribed medication. However, monitoring what medications need to be taken at certain times of the day can be difficult. Multi-compartment pill-boxes are a tool designed for medications to stay highly organized and safe. Doctors and other health care professionals often recommend utilizing pill-boxes to improve proper medication adherence. Pill-boxes sort medication pills or groups of medication pills. They are usually sorted in accordance to when they are supposed to be taken, and this makes taking them on scheduled times easier to remember. 

4. Storage Location

If you or your loved aging seniors have many different types of medications at home, it is not ideal to store them in several different places around the house. If this is the case, caregivers should find one place to store all their clients medications, allowing caregivers and seniors to always know where any type of medication can be found. This may be a medicine chest, a bathroom medicine cabinet, or any other type of bin.

Caregivers and seniors should be careful when storing medications in their bathroom and may want to move them to a different room. This is due to the temperature change from the shower, as humidity and heat can potentially negatively affect certain medications. Numerous factors can damage pills and medication, and this includes light, heat, air, and moisture. Therefore, it is important to be aware of where you store your medication as it can affect its safety and effectiveness.

Pill Organizer