Medication Reminders/ Safe Senior Program

Many senior citizen clients are required to take one or more prescription or over the counter medications each day to for treatment of both minor and serious medical conditions. The proper administration of multiple medications at different times during the day can be a challenge for many people but especially for the elderly. Although our caretakers cannot administer medications directly, they can assist the senior in taking their own medication when we are in the home. Reminding clients to take their medications on schedule, reporting side effects of these medications to family members and appropriate medical personnel and assisting the elderly with pre-measured medication organizers are all ways caregivers from Advantage Home Care can help.
 
 
 For those seniors who may require reminders during times when caregivers are not present, there is a unique computer-based telephony medication reminder program called Safe Senior that is available at no charge to Advantage Home Care’s clients. The system is designed to place a telephone call to a client up to three times a day at pre-arranged times to remind them to take up to six different medications by name on each call. Should the senior not answer their phone after repeated calls, a phone or email message can be automatically sent to their designated family member or friend. This system can also be used for simple well being calls as well. In this instance the elderly client is also called up to three times per day at pre-arranged times and asked if he/she is feeling well.

If the answer is "yes" the client is instructed to push the number one on the phone. If the answer is "no" the client is instructed to press the number two. Should the senior chose "no" a phone and/or or email is automatically sent to a designated person. The Safe Senior
program can become an important element in the total care of our clients by extending our coverage to seven days a week without the need to have a caregiver present at all times. In this ways the senior citizen is offered round the clock support to insure that their medications are being taken properly and on time to obtain the maximum benefit of these therapies.
 
 
The caregivers at Advantage Home Care are given a comprehensive overview of common medications prescribed for the many conditions that impact the elderly as they grow older. These conditions include Alzheimer’s disease, anemia, anxiety disorders, arthritis, asthma, diabetes, dementia, high cholesterol, hyper-tension, heart disease, kidney disease, liver disease and Parkinson’s disease. In some cases our senior clients suffer from several of these ailments and require careful monitoring of their medicines.

Caregivers from Advantage Home Care are trained to note the times when all medicines are taken in the daily logs which are contained in the care plan binder that remains in the client’s home so that medical professions can use this information when necessary to help
monitor the impact of taking multiple medications.