Getting the most out of your prescriptions

Routines are important. We’ve all had those routines we’ve kept since we were young and first starting out as an adult: Showering, coffee, maybe scarfing a banana on the way down to the car or the bus stop.

These well-worn paths are carved into our minds, things we’ve done daily for years, and even then we might make missteps, not out of carelessness but rather operating on our auto-pilot.

However, making those small missteps when it comes to daily prescriptions, medications or vitamins might have negative consequences that range from the mild to the severe, and it can only get more difficult as new, sometimes confusing actions are added to our routine.

With a variety of doctors, conditions and prescriptions, it’s important to nail down one of the biggest aspects which contribute to wellness and active aging in the latter part of life.

Debbie Franchuk, a former RN and aging expert with Home Instead Senior Care Calgary, knows full well how this can be challenging in the daily lives of older adults.

“Medication management can be a challenge, in general,” Franchuk said. “Regardless if an individual is cognitively affected or not, it’s difficult to keep them all straight.”

According to a 2016 report by the Canadian Institute for Health Information, 65.7 per cent of Canadian adults over the age of 65 were prescribed five or more different medications.

With each drug potentially treating a different condition or side effect, figuring out what the medications are, what they do, when to take them and what to take them with can be an arduous task.

Franchuk said it’s not easy and there are a myriad of reasons why an individual might have issues compiling all of the bits of information surrounding their prescriptions.

For one, often when someone is prescribed something at a walk-in clinic or emergency room, they aren’t feeling well in the first place. Unless it’s written down with proper instruction and explanation, the haze of illness might cloud important details.

“It’s very stressful, people are worried and things get forgotten,” Franchuk said.

With multitudes of information — all being told to someone at once, sometimes in a busy emergency room discharge — hearing impairments, whether slight or severe, can add to the disconnect.

Franchuk said it’s important for older adults to advocate for themselves and speak up: clarify confusion, ask questions, take notes or have someone with you to help with processing the information about your medications: what they’re for, when to take them and what to take them with.

The fear of being impolite or taking up someone’s time impedes people from speaking up, Franchuk said.

“Stop the politeness,” she recommended. “It’s peoples jobs and it’s much harder to get important information after the fact.”

“It’s okay to say you’re confused.”

It’s also recommended that individuals centralize their medications by ensuring they are managed at one pharmacy and to do timely reviews of their medications with either their pharmacist or GP. If you’ve gotten a prescription from a walk-in clinic or a hospital pharmacy after an emergency room visit, reconcile them with your current pharmacist.

“Have a list of all the medications that you’re on, their dosages and when you take them. Carry it with you,” Franchuk said. “It’s good for when you’re at the pharmacist, when you’re at the GPs, to ensure that information is up to date.

The potential ramifications if medications are handled or taken improperly are various: first of all, the initial problem for which they were prescribed is being untreated.

Moreover, Franchuk said, there can be bad side effects or interactions between both prescription drugs and over-the-counter remedies. She recommends telling your pharmacist if you’re taking daily vitamins, antacids or natural remedies.

Caretakers or family members can also assist in ensuring their loved ones are adhering to proper medication schedules. Franchuk said they should keep a look out on the use of prescriptions: whether someone is taking too many or too few, whether they’re taking them at the proper time, whether they’re stored in the original containers or scattered about.

Frankchuk said that managing prescriptions properly is one of the best ways for older adults stay as well as possible, as long as possible.

“Meds are a simple way to stay health, on track, and stay connected with [one’s] health,” she said. “If we empower people, they want to get well and they want to stay well.”

“The risk for them to have problems due to not taking medications properly brings them back into the system.”

By keeping prescription information in line, sticking with it and caring for one’s selfsame well-being, folks can stay independent and healthy far into their futures.