I'm worried about my mother as she is on a number of medications and I discovered today that she only takes them occasionally..."when she feels bad." Is there any service out there that will help remind her to be taking her meds? It would also be great if they could ask her how she's doing, because she doesn't always go to the doctor soon enough. To be sure something like this exists, right?
She is supposed to take her thyroid medication on an empty stomach first thing in the morning. The remainder of her meds could be taken later in the morning. We had a series of missteps before I finally realized I had to get her help for first thing in the morning. I had tried calling. She would say she had taken the pills already when she hadn't. She would take them twice sometimes. She would listen to my message and ignore the instructions. Now she not only gets her meds at the right time and everyday but she also gets a hot breakfast, help with dressing, laundry, a short walk and interaction with a friendly face two hours each day. In trying to conserve her funds for when she really needs them ( she's 90!) I was overlooking that she needed more help now. She's recently become incontinent so I see another layer of care coming soon. I thought it was just the pills she needed help with but realistically she needed more care.
I also have home health come in. They take her vitals at least three times a week (nurse and aid). This helps me know that the pills are being taken as her bp will be elevated if she hasn't had the pills. They log the readings in each week. When I go once a week to spend the night, I check the log. I've also considered cameras. Lots of good suggestions here. It just depends on the level of care your mom needs. I count it a success if whatever method implemented lasts for awhile. It's all temporary, like us.
I was in a similar situation a year ago when my mother in law was diagnosed with Alzheimer. She is on a rather complicated medication schedule and she started to forget what and when to take. I have looked online for some simple solutions. Especially I did not want her to handle any new kind of (electronic) device because at this stage it is impossible for her to start using anything new. I found a really cool service called memo24 (I think it is developed by a European company) where basically the service will call you on your regular phone and play a message that you have previously set up. It has also a cool alert feature where it will alert me by email/sms if my mother in law does not pick up or confirm the reception of the call. I have been using it for the past 5 months now, and I can tell it is working :-).
you can check it out on www.memo24.net
Hope this will help.
If she has a cell phone, iPhone or computer, you can program the calendar with a reminder. If she is not able to respond to that, and if you cannot trust her to take the meds, then maybe she needs more supervision. Maybe she does not need the meds. Who knows, but the Doctor. Time to evaluate her condition and follow up.
Maybe start with a companion to check on her for a couple of hours a day? Hugs:)