When is the last time you reviewed your senior loved one’s medication list? You may be surprised to see how many medications they take each day, each with a carefully prescribed timeline from their physician. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed, and you aren’t alone. A research study published in the Journals of Gerontologysuggests that 46 percent of seniors aged 70-79 take at least five medications per day, and that number doesn’t include over-the-counter medicines or supplements.
Taking more than one prescription medicine each day is called polypharmacy, and it increases with age due to chronic condition management. It can feel like a well-timed dance of taking the right medications at the right time throughout the day, with any mistakes in timing or dosing holding the potential of an emergency room visit. Thanks to automatic pill dispensers, caregivers and independent seniors at home can pass some of that stress onto well-designed technology. Your new medication management system has the potential to give you benefits you may not even realize.
Caregivers and independent seniors living at home alone can feel overwhelmed with the monumental task of medication management. Most chronic conditions, including pain management, can require medications taken at specific times throughout the day. This precision can lead to feeling trapped in a certain schedule without any wiggle room for spontaneous visits or events. It creates the perfect storm of anxiety, for both the caregiver and the individual. Automatic pill dispensers eliminate the need to worry about which medication to take at what time. The best devices on the market enable you to set a schedule to automatically dispense medications at certain times, taking much of the manual guesswork of this process.
Medication mismanagement leads to thousands of emergency room visits per year, and it can happen to even the most lucid individuals living independently at home. Thanks to medication management technology, caregivers and individuals can rest assured they are getting the correct dose of medications at the correct time, eliminating accidental double doses or incorrect timing.
For most seniors living at home independently, there is a family caregiver who helps with care coordination. Some of these family members live far from the senior, which can make them feel in the dark when it comes to daily care needs. Thanks to advances in technology, Livi uses 3G capabilities to give caregivers real-time updates on medication. Now, caregivers who live or work across town, can know if Mom missed a dose of her noon medications, or if they need to reorder a certain medication that is running low. It has never been easier for a faraway caregiver to feel more connected to their loved one’s medication routines.
Seniors living with dementia can live at home safely for longer, with the right supports and resources. Medication management systems offer the opportunity for those living with memory challenges to be prompted through audio and visual cues, decreasing the possibility of skipping—or accidentally doubling—a dose.
It is not always realistic for a caregiver, or for an independent individual, to refill a pillbox weekly. Fortunately, products like Livi allow for significant storage space, giving caregivers the chance to refill pills every few months as opposed to every seven days. Now, visits with senior loved ones don’t have to always include a pillbox refill; caregivers can use that extra time for more fulfilling conversations with the senior they love.
Gone are the days of plastic pillboxes that are inconvenient and difficult to open; it’s a new era of safer medication management. Are you ready to discover the advancements in medication management technology that can benefit you and your loved ones? Download The Ultimate Guide to Medication Management for Family Caregivers.
