Patch application

[bigmama]

My Mums SW is arranging a package to enable her to return home. As she lives on her own and forgets when she needs to take them, she needs to be prompted to take her pills after each meal. She has asked me to sort out her blister packs. As the ladies that will go in to Mum can only prompt can anyone suggest what will happen each day when she needs her Exelon changing? The SW knows about it but didn't seems able to give me any answers

 

[Izzy]

Sorry I don't know what would happen here. My husband was on Exelon patches but they made him very itchy and restless. We got them changed to capsules - would this be an option for your mum? The only thing is that we had to go back to the lowest strength then build up to the strength he was on with the patches. x

 

[Tolkny]

Eventually my wife realised that it was impossible for her to manage all her Mum's medication and she did manage to set up a system with the visiting carers who actually oversaw that the tablets were actually taken.

They were prepared to give very heavy prompts and Mum in law got used to accepting those prompts although she denied that anyone ever called but they did twice a day until she died after quite a long while on that regime.

I do hope something can be worked out to protect bigmama from needing to oversee every move her Mum makes.

It maybe worth a call to the Helpline to double check what might be reasonably sorted out with the professionals involved and also it could be worth seeing what support is available for Carers and Cared for from the local branch of the Alzheimer Soc.

 

[FifiMo]

If the application of the patch is the only reason your mum can't go home then they could perhaps get the district nurses to do it rather than the carers. My mother had the blister packs but you need to be reassured that she actually takes the tablets. On a recent visit to my mother's home (she is in hospital at the moment) I was tidying up and found a pile of tablets under her recliner chair ! I suspect this happened on the days when the carers arrived and my mother told them she'd already had her breakfast and her tablets and they would check the blister pack and think that that was the case. One way round this is for the carers to hide the blister pack up high somewhere so they actually dispense the tablets.

Fiona