Medication Management: Systematizing Your Medicines

By Author: Kaycee Bishop
Total Articles: 24
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When we reach our senior years, it is just common to be forgetful about a lot of things. While this is quite normal for elders, this fact still poses a lot of risks or dangers specially for their health. Usually, old age brings us diseases and conditions that require us to take a lot of medicines. Being forgetful and disorganized can lead us to a messed up medicine cabinet or tray and make us take the wrong meds at the wrong time, for the wrong reasons. This is why proper medication management is needed.

It is important for everyone, particularly for seniors who are inclined to forget to come up with a distinct, protected and structured way to efficiently systematize the arrangement and identification of their medicines. The most basic organization is the division of prescription, generic, and over-the-counter drugs. Moreover, it is also a must for seniors to have an effective way to identify what these meds and a helpful sort of reminder to remember the required dosage and the frequency of usage. While elders can already ask the pharmacist to do the labelling upon purchase, in case the writing is illegible, or ...
... the ink smudged off, or the label was peeled off, there are other recommended ways on how to come up with a proper and useful method to classify medicines.

1. Use containers or trays

Containers and trays can really aid not just in the safekeeping but also in a practical sorting of medications. Dark-colored containers are more preferred because it can help you easily spot the pills, capsules or tablets as they contrast the actual color of the tray. Also, the space provided by this type of storage ensures that the meds are in their proper place and lessen the chance of dropping them and losing them on the floor.

2. Be aware of how a particular medicine look like

A simple but good way to go with medication management has something to do with knowing and remembering how a certain pill looks like and even feels like. For example, the vitamin that you are taking comes in the form of a regular sized tablet, while the drug you take for your high cholesterol level is a small-size tablet. By knowing the size and the appearance of the pill, you can avoid the mistake of taking the tablet for high blood pressure as a vitamin and vice versa. The fact that you are taking a certain med frequently can make it easy for you to recognize and remember them.

3. Come up with creative and distinct ways to label

There are a number of ways to label medicine bottles. Not just with the use of a paper strip or a tape strips with written labels, rubber bands, stickers, and color-coding are also effective ways to organize your medicines. You can put a red rubber bands on all meds for your diabetes while green rubber bands can remind you of your vitamins or food supplements. Moreover, you can print stickers that can say “Diabetes Meds” or whatever kind of labelling you decided to come up and use.

4. You’ll never go wrong with proper storage
Having a medicine cabinet or medicine box can save you from a lot of trouble. If you know exactly where your medicines are stored, you won’t have a hard time finding them and identifying which of them do you need at a certain moment.

These are just some simple suggestions on how to go about an easy but effective method for medication management. Come up with your own. Be creative and organized as possible.