Helping Someone with Dementia with Medication

It's very common for people with dementia who have other health conditions as well to have to take a  number medicines at various times of the day.   This can become very confusing and, if they live alone, a source of anxiety for their family too, who worry if they are taking thier medicines.. Here are a few tips to help people with dementia who live on their own to take their medicines correctly.
The first thing to do is to establish what medicines are being taken and why.  A chat to the doctor or pharmacist will help to clarify why each medicine is being taken and to ensure that you know the correct dosage.  It may be helpful to make a list of the medicines, the dosage, the time of day and any special instructions, such as  whether a tablet needs to be taken before or after food.  It is also useful to have a medicines review with the doctor every year to ensure that all the medicines being taken are still needed.

For someone with dementia, or indeed any elderly person who is having a lot of medication and finds it confusing,  it is best  to have all tablets which are being taken regularly to be put into a "blister pack" .  This is an A5 sized card  with small  cells filled by the pharmacist, each holding all the medication for each time of the day the medicines must be taken -  typically  morning, lunchtime, teatime and bedtime.  These only hold the tablets and liquid medicines must still  be poured out onto a spoon or medicine cup.  New liquid holding blister packs are becoming available so do ask your pharmacist about these if required. 

Blister packs make it easy to ensure that the right medication is taken at the right time.   Blister packs are also very useful if you have several family members who assist with medicines as everything is  very clearly labelled and easy to dispense.

Remembering to take the medication at the correct time can be a challenge especially for someone living on their own.     There are a number of  ways which the person with dementia can be helped to remember to take medication.  A chart on a whiteboard where the person with dementia can tick off when medicines have been taken, various alarm systems and  timed talking pill boxes are all available and can be very useful in individual circumstances. It is important, whatever system is chosen, to establish a routine and ensure that all medicines are taken regularly at the right dose, at the right time.

If a reminder system is not appropriate or does not work, the next step is to organise a home care support worker to call in at regular times to assist the  person with dementia to take  their medication regularly.  Home care support workers can  help to dispense prescribed  tablets, liquid medicines, topical patches, eye drops and creams.   All SureCare staff have had medication administration training so you can be sure that they are able to assist with medication competently.  If you would like some help with medication for someone you know, call SureCare today on 01926 800159.

For more information on SureCare please go to http://www.surecarewarks.co.uk/