For parents wanting to speak to their teens about drugs, there are many resources they can access for help on how to do it; but for those wanting to speak to their senior parents or other older relatives about prescription drugs, there aren’t many places they can turn to for help.
Home Instead Senior Care is working to change this.
The company recently launched a website focused on educating families on how to talk to their older relatives about their medication and prescription drugs.
Lindsey Glubrecht, operations manager for Home Instead in Bellevue, said as people get older, they often get prescribed more medications. According to a Home Instead study, most seniors in North America take at least four prescribed medications daily and one in five experience challenges with keeping track of what medications to take and when to take them. In addition, one in 10 seniors will make mistakes regarding their medications and 11 percent of those mistakes result in some sort of medical emergency, Glubrecht said. She added that about 50 percent of the seniors they surveyed have not had this conversation with their families.
“That’s a very alarming statistic,” she said.
Glubrecht — whose office serves communities throughout the Eastside, including Redmond, Bellevue, Kirkland, Issaquah and Renton — said Home Instead’s online program includes interactive conversation starters families can use for speaking with their elderly loved ones, signs to look for in case they are not taking their medication correctly, a printout prescription tracker to help with scheduling and tips on how to stay organized and on top of things.
Glubrecht said some of those tips include a family member or caregiver going to doctor appointments with the senior and keeping an essential list of doctors and medications. Designating one doctor to be the “gatekeeper” of this list can also be helpful, she said, as they could be sure the combination of drugs will not cause any adverse reactions. In addition, specially labeled pill containers to keep track of days of the week and times of the day, as well as individually wrapped pill packets, can be helpful.
Home Instead also has a list of the top medications that send seniors to the hospital due to adverse effects and reactions.
“These risks just multiply,” Glubrecht said about when seniors get older and are prescribed more medications.
The Home Instead site also offers a list of questions seniors should ask their doctors such as the name of their medications, what they are for, whether they need to take the medicine with food and more.
She acknowledged how difficult it can be for families to talk to seniors about this as many wish to remain independent. However, Glubrecht said, that independence often depends on the individual’s ability to keep their prescribed medications.
Monica Board, who has been a caregiver with Home Instead for two years and an independent caregiver for a few years prior, said in supporting a senior in taking their medications correctly, it is important not to reprimand. She said seniors feel good when they are doing things as they normally would. They feel a sense of accomplishment for doing things on their own, Board said.
She said it is the families’ role to be in charge of her clients’ medications.
“We’re not in charge of the medications,” she said.
Board, who works with a number of clients at Emerald Heights retirement community in Redmond and other parts of the city, said her role is usually to check in with them to make sure they are taking their medicine correctly, watch for changes and possible side effects. Some of those side effects include dizziness, nausea, weight loss, loss of appetite and more. The Home Instead site also offers a list of symptoms to watch for.
Board said if she sees any of these changes, she would alert the family.
She said her role as caregiver varies from client to client, depending on what their needs are and what the family needs them to do. Her duties range from well checks to make sure the client is doing OK, taking their medications and drinking plenty of fluids, to staying with someone overnight for a few days if their regular caregiver is out of town or on vacation. She will also sometimes go to doctor appointments with clients and take notes for them and their families. Board said it is nice to have a second set of ears present in case some information gets missed.
