Good evening. My mom is 67 yrs young. She has horrible short term memory. She has suffered from Epilepsy for 50 yrs. Her memory has been bad for as long as I can remember, but the last few years it has gotten much worse. She does not have dementia, but if you didn't know her you might would suspect she was in the beginning stages.
Here is my problem: she double doses her meds sometimes! I ALWAYS prepare her meds in the plastic minder bins. One box AM M-S, PM M-S. I put the pill bin in a plastic storage box that latches. There is a note taped to the box " Mama LOOK at the DAY on the CLOCK before you TAKE MEDICINE. Do this for me. TOO much med is dangerous!"
I purchased her a clock from Amazon that shows the Day, Time, Morning, Afternoon, Evening. It also has an alarm, which I have set for 8am and 5pm.
Today at 7 pm she had already taken Thursday AM meds.
I am at my wits end. I don't know what else to do. She does not belong in a facility. I can't afford an aide every day. She doesn't meet the ADLs for Medicaid to pay for an aide. I do pay an aide 2hrs 2 days a week. I have to work, I can't go over there twice a day and dispense her meds.
When she double takes meds, it makes her "drunk". She literally falls and I worry that it will eventually kill her.
Please, anyone have suggestions.
Your mother cannot safely manage medications. Take them away from her. Do you or does anyone see her every day? Depending on what the medications are, it may be possible to change the formulations to modified release of some kind so that she doesn't need two visits.
I strongly question the assertion that your mother does not have dementia. Fifty years of epilepsy treatment would make her more, not less, vulnerable. Has this actually been investigated?
I would still seek out other options.
Aides cannot dispense medications (legally). The aide can point to the medication mediplanner and ask that the person take the meds at that time. And legally aides should not be filling
mediplanners either.
Would mom be eligible for a 55+ Community that has an attached health center? Or an AL with medication management services provided?
Medication mis-management leads to hospitalization. Can you speak with her providers and get meds that need only one dose per day vs twice a day? This is a hard situation as many other seniors have this as a potential problem as well.
Good luck to you!
Thank you for your time responding to me.
Dementia in the beginning can be very subtle.
Having said that, the important detail is how to get your mom’s meds given correctly.
Obviously your current method does not work.
Have you checked to see if she can take all of her meds at once instead of AM&PM. Extended Release is available for many meds.
Next (or maybe first) I would look into the locked medication boxes that only open at a specific time. I’ve never used those but many on this forum mention them.
I tried calling my aunt each morning to walk her through her meds. She would say. Ok I’m taking it now. She was not. I had installed cameras and I could see her hang up the phone and go right past the meds. In the time we were talking and she hung up the phone she would forget.
She had one very important pill she needed to take on an empty stomach and wait 30 min before eating anything. After two ER visits in one weekend I faced the fact that I had to have an aide come in each morning to give that pill and monitor her food intake.
I know this is hard for you and mom. It may be time to try to get her located closer to where you live to make life easier.
Hopefully someone will have better ideas to help.