Giving drugs covertly

[Raggedrobin]

Hi, it has been agreed that as my Mum is temperamental in her drug taking, that she should receive two of them, mirtazipine and memantine, covertly. The staff at the care home seem to make a hash of this, putting it in food she doesn't eat or drinks she doesn't drink (don't patients notice their food/drink tasting weird?).

I wonder if anyone has any strategies for good ways to either overtly or covertly give them medications, please?

 

[Izzy]

My husband will happily take things which are in a spoonful of yoghurt. I've just had the go ahead from the surgery pharmacist to break open the Venlafaxine capsules and sprinkle them in yoghurt. His tamsulosin is to be broken open and dissolved in a little water. I'm picking up the liquid form of furosemide tomorrow. It's hard going. You have my sympathy. x

 

[Raggedrobin]

Thanks. unfortunately Mum doesn't like yogurt.

 

[kayze]

Hi,

My husband was not taking his medication, I think he was having trouble swallowing them, my doctor changed most of his drugs to liquid form, he was ok with this for a few days then refused to swallow.

My doctor suggested I hide it in food or drink he really likes.
I found yoghurt, small cartons of fruit juice, and deserts worked the best for him, he also still eats ice cream if I put his drugs in that, but I usually put some flavoured sauce on top, like what the ice cream man would, seems to hide the horrible taste.

I hope you can find something that works for your mum.

Best wishes.

 

[Izzy]

Thanks. unfortunately Mum doesn't like yogurt.

My mum would have been the same! I should have said she said soft food -eg yoghurt, jam etc.

 

[susy]

Can you crush the tablet between two spoons then add jam and then literally feed her with it? Does she like jam?

 

[Dragonfly2014]

We've held out as long as possible against giving drugs covertly as if my mum realises/suspects people are trying to trick her she will refuse to eat. She does need her medication, though, and so if necessary we now crush pills and combine them with strong-tasting food to mask the taste. Liquids go in drinks.

 

[Raggedrobin]

Thanks all. At the moment we are on heavily laden jam on toast, Susy. A spoonful of jam i think she might suspect but jam seems quite a good one. kayze, I have been thinking ice cream, as she really likes that but like Dragonfly one of mu greatest concerns at present is that she has been very suspicious and was talking about her food being poisoned last week.
It is the nurses, not I, who administer and hide the drugs but at the moment they aren't doing it very well and she is missing doses which is not good.I feel a lot comes down to also spending time over giving her drugs, they often rush, she doesn't take them, and then they put them in her food and I can't imagine why she wouldn't realise something is wrong with the food, her tastes may have changed but she still has a sense of taste.

I find it odd that the staff don't seem to think she will notice it. the other day a nurse was dissolving 2 paracetemol in orange juice for her and I thought, wouldn't you taste it in that? Of course the covert thing this has led to her rejecting food and so there is the added problem that she isn't eating enough.

 

[Kevinl]

Please check first, some drugs are designed to dissolve slowly, teaspoon crushing released them much too quickly into the body and can be dangerous.
K

 

[Wolfsgirl]

The nurses wanted to put my Mum's meds in food which she was already rejecting. I said emphatically 'no' to this for two reasons - first it would make the food taste awful and there would be no guarantee she would eat it all and get the correct dose - they respected that.

It takes a little time and patience to persuade Mum to take the meds but she will usually do it as luckily she is quite cooperative. Perhaps it is down to resources or lack of?

 

[Grace L]

I knew of a carer (I met at the carers centre) who used to deconstruct a liquorice allsort, hide tablet inside , and squish them back together again ...
Also, open up a tiny slit in a jelly baby back, and hide medication...

The reason she did this, was because she knew her husband would eat the sweets without protesting,
and medication could not be tasted through the 'sweetness'.


It is VERY IMPORTANT, and please TP-ers check with GP, pharmacist if the drugs are compatible with being hidden in sweet things.

 

[Izzy]

Please check first, some drugs are designed to dissolve slowly, teaspoon crushing released them much too quickly into the body and can be dangerous.
K

Agreed. I took the advice of the surgery's pharmacist. I know that we can't crush any of the pills. We're sticking exactly with the advice given. We're also not doing it covertly. My husband just doesn't swallow pills/capsules some days. He's not refusing. He just can't. He watches us sprinkle or dissolve the capsules' granules.

 

[Grace L]

I never has too much trouble with my husband, but in the latter stages I could see him
examining his medication, he took ages deciding it he was going to take it, and he constantly
asked me what this one, or that one was for ...

I got a medication pot (from pharmacy) , made a drug chart and got a clip board...
and made it 'look official' ... and sat with him until he took it.

 

[Raggedrobin]

Thank you all for your comments. I am inclined to feel that putting the drugs in mum's food is counterproductive as some of you have said and is stopping her eating. I am going to go for asking them to try harder to give them and also go for liquid forms where they can. it is hard to know how hard they try, or not to give the drugs normally but I do know that mum can sometimes just say 'no' to something and it is very hard to change her mind.

 

[CJinUSA]

My mother no longer knows what we mean when we ask her to take her pills. She no longer seems to process directions well at all, most days. (Some days, she *does* understand, of course, but many days she does not.)

The one caregiver can sort of badger her into taking her meds. The other puts them on her food, not attempting to hide them.

I have found that she loves it when I myself approach her with her meds. I hand her a glass of juice, iced tea, or water, and cheerily say that it's time to take her medications. One by one, I pop the pills into her mouth, motion for her to take a swig, and down the pills go. She seems to love the special attention.

The caregivers are not permitted to do it this way with her (they are not legally permitted to "give" her her pills, just to supply them to her), so this won't work for them, over here. I think if you could, you might go and see your mother during med-giving time and see if this might work for you. Making a special, happy, loving thing out of it has worked for us here. My mother lives with us, and I am her caregiver when the hired ones are not here, so this is becoming routine for us.

 

[Raggedrobin]

Hi Cj, mum was more easy to give meds to when it was me, but I can't be at the care home at drug time and now she has developed a thing about it, there are times when it works with no one.
Actually the manager called me in for a chat today and I had just finished writing her a letter about it. We are trying drugs in drinks but mum can sometimes get suspicious or just doesn't have a drink.
I am going to see her GP about it, too.

 

[Chris-G]

Hi Cj, mum was more easy to give meds to when it was me, but I can't be at the care home at drug time and now she has developed a thing about it, there are times when it works with no one.
Actually the manager called me in for a chat today and I had just finished writing her a letter about it. We are trying drugs in drinks but mum can sometimes get suspicious or just doesn't have a drink.
I am going to see her GP about it, too.

Hi RR,

The one thing that is not mentioned regarding meds in food is what happens regularly in mum's home...... They put liquids in drinks, powders and crushed tabs in sandwiches etc..... then due to time pressure they leave the food and drink on the more capable resident's table and then the mobile patients sneak up and nick it.

My mum used to do it a lot. (Others still do): Unobserved by anyone but us (and only when we were there to stop it). There were als two patients that were not allowed food by mouth. They took food all the time with the consequences that they choked. Go alone knows how many drugs were/are wrongly consumed due to inattentive staff.

CG

 

[bilslin]

Hi RR just a thought what about putting it in to ice cream. If its not one thing its another with this damned disease. lindax

 

[Raggedrobin]

OMG CG that is awful! Fortunately on some levels, less on others, mum is in a non dementia nursing home, and the dementia ones are spread out throughout the building, so no chance of them nicking mum's meds.

linda, I thought ice cream, too, but that require the nurses taking the time to mash it in...whether they will I don't know. The manager and I were saying that mum still has good taste awareness, she isn't easily deceived.

 

[Gossy]

There are several rules about carers giving meds. One of them is that you are not supposed to hide medication in food etc. as apparently it is against patients human rights (unless there is a special dispensation) and also as mentioned earlier they may react with the food.
A carer should be able to administer medication provided they have a MAR (Medication Administration Record) sheet - an official legal document - with details of the medication to be given and signed for.