Do You Know Someone Who is Struggling With Their Medication?

Taking the correct medication, at the correct time, is essential! It is essential for maintaining health and preventing illness.

Following a hospital admission or an illness, it is common for people’s medication to change. It can take time for people to understand their medication regime and therefore any changes can be confusing and overwhelming.

Some people that can struggle with managing their medication include those with:

• Visual difficulties impacting their ability to read boxes, to see the tablets etc.

• Memory or problem-solving difficulties making it difficult to remember to take tablets or to recognise when to take them, or to be able to follow the instructions on the box.  

• Difficulty with dexterity impacting their ability to retrieve tablets or making it easy to drop tablets.  

• Mental health issues resulting in reduced motivation to take tablets.

If you are concerned about yours or a loved one’s ability to manage their medication, then firstly speak with the GP. It is important that the GP is aware due to the impact that missed medication can be having on a person’s health.

It may also be beneficial to speak with your pharmacist as they may be able to identify some solutions to these difficulties.

Two useful tools that some individuals I work with use include:

1. Pill organiser - these can be purchased from pharmacies, health shops or purchased online. They can allow tablets to be organised for a week or a month (depending on the specific organiser). They require for someone to fill them in advance and therefore it is important to consider who can do this (whether it is the individual themselves or a family member) and how often they can do this (ie if it is a family member do visit weekly in order to allow them to fill it on a weekly basis).

2. Pill poppers - there is a huge variety of these available to purchase. They are beneficial for those individuals with dexterity issues and who find it difficult to pop the tablets out of the packaging.

An Occupational Therapist can help with medication compliance. OT’s can establish the specific difficulties a person is having that is impacting on their ability to take their medication correctly and look at strategies and tools to enable them to follow their medication regime correctly.

If you want to find out more about how Occupational Therapy input can support individuals with medication compliance then contact me or call me on 07424555188.