5 Ways To Help Caregivers Track Medications
Caring for a loved one is known to be incredibly difficult. Not many of us have been trained to be caregivers. Yet, in a way, we all become caregivers at some point in our lives. Caregiving is a normal part of life often triggered by major event like Stroke, Heart Attack, Alzheimer or Dementia. There is no right or wrong way of doing it but use of technology can make the journey a little easy. It’s tough for family caregivers to keep track of all the medications. Here are five tips to help them keep track of the medications:
1. Make a List of Medications
That mental confusion every time you try to remember what dose your patient is taking and what the medicine is for? To say the least, it’s tough. Fortunately, there’s a way to avoid it:
Have a list of all medications, vitamins and supplements
The best way is to have a paper version of the list with drug name (generic or brand), why it is being taken, its dosage and special instructions if any (how many times a day, what it should be taken with) added to the list. Don’t miss out on adding vitamins and supplements (not prescribed) to the list.
Pro Tip: Even though you’re tracking medications, we suggest updating list every fifteen days. Thankfully, there’s Galarm reminder to help you, so all you have to do is make reminder ring after every fifteen days at your preferred time. It will make sure you don’t forget updating the list giving you a reasonable level of relief.
2. Clean up and Streamline
Organise medications using a daily pill organiser which has compartments for multiple doses a day making it easier for seniors to identify which pill to take at what time of the day. If your patient has trouble remembering to take their medications, set Galarm’s backup reminders for them. Now, whenever they miss a dose, you’ll be notified to give them a reminder via call or text. This might seem like a small thing, but finding ways to gamify tracking of medications for your parent can make you feel less stressed, encouraging your loved one not to miss a dose.
3. Check with the pharmacist
Communicate with your pharmacist to prevent any confusion. Try to use only one trusted pharmacy for all the medications and potential interactions. You can check online pharmacies too if you are looking for a change. Check to see if you need a weekly or monthly refill of medications and find ways to coordinate with your pharmacist to keep a track of refills. An easy way to coordinate here is using Galarm’s buddy reminders. All you have to do is send a refill reminder to your pharmacist with updated medication list saved as a note within the reminder. Align yourself with your pharmacist to keep better track of medications and their refills.
4. Enlist Outside Support
If you’re managing all this from a distance, don’t hesitate to bring in outside help. Most home health agencies provide variety of care options like nurses coming in monthly or weekly to set up pill boxes, coordinate with doctors and pharmacies and checking on parent.
If you’re constantly pressed for time, try to rope in other family members or your siblings to help with medication management. Set aside a dedicated task (set up pill boxes monthly or weekly or pick up medicines on time) for them and then you’ll have time to manage it all.
Pro Tip: If you’ve been thinking about ways to give reminders to your family members, then you can’t miss to use Galarm. You might be surprised to see the feature which allows you to send reminders to someone’s phone with a single tap. Now, no more worrying about other forgetting to do an important task.
5. Tweak as you go
Medication management is an on-going process that you need to tweak as you go. As the mental and physical conditions of your patient changes, you’ll have to tweak the process so that it fits with their health regime. It can be a real challenge to monitor their situation to look for signs of management mistakes and correct them at the earliest. Maintain close communication with your loved one and safeguard them by making sure they take their medicines the right way.
Making sure that your loved one doesn’t forget to take their medications and supplements on time is one of the hardest things to do. But, armed with tricks to manage medications and two tools: daily pill organiser and Galarm to help you stay on track, you can successfully manage it all.
