Eldercare - Medication

While it is important for seniors to take their prescribed medication, it is equally important for them to have confidence in what they are taking. Moreover, they should know and understand why they are taking their medication and what effects it has upon their bodies. The doctor should explain all of this in a clear and concise manner to any senior patient.

The patient will also need to know how to take the medication; how to store the medication, where to get more medication should they run out and how to dispose of any medication that is no longer needed.

No patient, especially a senior, should feel pressured into taking any medication of which they have no information, nor should they be pressured into leaving the doctor's office until they have all their questions answered.

For any younger friends or relatives, there are steps you can take to assist your elderly relative with taking his or her medication at the prescribed times and with the correct dosages: Advise that if only taking medication a couple of times during a day, that they could coincide the taking of the medicine with an everyday activity e.g., cleaning one's teeth or walking the dog.

Alternatively, if the elderly relative has to take numerous types of medication, it might be a good idea to visit the pharmacist and get a plastic container that has individual compartments for storing pills. The compartments are either divided into times of the day (e.g. morning, lunch, afternoon, night) and/or divided into separate days so that a week's worth of pills can be prepared in advance and it will be easy to tell if a dose has been inadvertently skipped.

Adapted from: How you can help seniors use medication safely. Health Canada 1999.