Helping with Medication: Administering medicines effectively

Modern medicine is amazing – it can save lives, kill germs, ease pain and other unpleasant symptoms and slow down the progression of serious diseases like cancer or heart failure. But medicine will only work well if it is taken at the right dose, at the right time, and in the best and safest way. This article will help you understand how to help your parent get the best out of their medicine and administer medication effectively.

Understanding Different Forms of Medication

Medicines can be taken in many different ways – tablets, ointments, inhalers, eyedrops, suppositories, injections, syrups etc.

Regardless of the format, all medicines are likely to work best when they are taken at the right dose and at the right time, and in the best and safest way possible. In other words, when taking medication correctly.

There is plenty of evidence indicating that many people do not take medicines as recommended.  One study found that between one third and one half of all prescribed medications prescribed for long term conditions are not taken as recommended.

If a medicine is not taken correctly, it is less likely to work properly and may lead to a deterioration in health. As a Carent, it is important to understand how you can help your loved ones benefit most from their medication.

Common Barriers to Proper Medication Administration 

There are many reasons why someone might not take their medicine properly.  The reasons vary but commonly include forgetting to take a medicine, or not fully understanding how or when to take a medicine.

Deliberately Avoiding Medicines

Sometimes, patients deliberately avoid taking medicine so that they don’t have to suffer medication side effects. This is a common phenomenon in patients taking certain diuretics – water tablets – which can lead to inconvenient visits to the bathroom to pass water.  Whilst this is understandable, it can stop them working properly and cause serious health problems.

Other medicines are avoided because the person who has been prescribed them does not believe that they are beneficial.  Typically these are medicines which do not immediately relieve any symptoms and therefore give little immediate benefit but which are designed to prevent problems occurring in future.  Common examples include blood pressure tablets or cholesterol lowering medicines such as statins.

Sometimes people avoid medicines because they fear the medication side effects and do not want to make their everyday health worse than it already is.

In instances such as these, it is essential that any concerns are shared and discussed with a clinician to ensure that everyone involved understands the risks and benefits of taking a medicine.  These discussions can help to overcome any practical problems and lead to alternative treatment regimes.

You can help by encouraging your parent to speak to their doctor, nurse or pharmacist to discuss their concerns and seek alternative treatment.

How to Administer Medication Correctly 

Each medicine performs best when taken according to a specific regime.  The regime might be time specific eg a specific time of day, or interval between doses.  Other regimes might relate to meal times  – some medicines work better on an empty stomach and some are better taken with food.    In some instances, position plays a part, for example some medicines need to be taken lying down and others standing up.

It is therefore essential to understand how best to take each medicine to support your parent in taking their medication.  Usually, a pharmacist is best placed to advise you or your parent and they will give you the most accurate and detailed instructions.

Sometimes you might need a demonstration  – this is especially the case with inhaled medicine,eye drops, or ointments.  Again, a pharmacist or prescriber should be able to help but sometimes a video can be helpful.

This video is also helpful for patients taking inhalers.  Inhaler technique can be very important.

Different Ways to Take Medicine 

If a pill or medicine is physically too difficult to swallow then a doctor or pharmacist can consider prescribing the medicine in a different form.  At its simplest this might mean changing a tablet to a liquid or dispersible medicine and this often does the trick.  In extreme cases then an injection might be warranted.

It is well worth recognising that medicine can be issued in different formats and both your pharmacist or doctor can help by prescribing an alternative.  This can be helpful if someone for example:

• Cannot reach or manipulate tubes to apply creams or eye drops – alternative dispensers including sprays can be prescribed for skin care, in some cases a care worker or community nurse can call to provide help especially with eye drops
• Cannot manage an inhaler – there are lots of different types of inhaler and a good pharmacist or GP practice nurse will be able to help you find the easiest one to use.

Using Tools to Aid in Medication Administration

You can help your parent understand exactly how and when each prescribed medicine should be taken e.g. taken with food or between meals. However, if their memory or concentration is fading then you might also consider offering or setting up alarms which can act as prompts and reminders.  Another solution can be a pill dispenser – easily and cheaply available online or in chemist stores.  If these options do not work then you can speak to your local authority adult social care department to make suitable arrangements to provide one to one support and supervision when administering medication.

Pharmacy Support to help with regular medicines

For those with dementia or other significant problems relating to memory or concentration, a dosette box can be helpful.  These boxes are provided by the pharmacy and are a great type of mediation support.

Dosette boxes 
These are seven day pill organisers, often in the form of blister packs, which organise prescribed drugs into individual compartments corresponding to different times of day.

They can be useful but they also have some drawbacks to beware of:
– Some medicines such as, liquids, inhalers and ointments cannot be included.
– They cannot include medicines which are needed on an “as required” basis such as painkillers
– They are not easy to organise if the medication regime keeps changing.
– There can be delays altering the contents of the dosette box.
– The contents are not supported by the usual “patient information leaflets

Dosette boxes are not always available for free on the NHS. Ask a pharmacist or a GP for more information about dosette boxes if you think they could be helpful in helping someone to take their medicine properly.

All pharmacies can provide invaluable advice to help you and yours understand how best to take each medicine.  They can help you understand and administer medication properly in order to get the most benefit.  They can also advise on side effects, interactions with other medicines and practical problems such as inhaler technique.