|
|
Caregivers of Seniors - Tools
 |
Safe Medicines for Seniors: A Guide for Caregivers
Safe Medicines
for Seniors: A Guide for Caregivers (the Guide) is for anyone
helping or taking care of a senior in any way. The checklist questions
help identify any problems you or the person you’re helping may
have with medicine. The tips offer suggestions on ways you can help. The
Guide can be used on its own or with Safe
Medicines for Seniors: A Workshop for Caregivers, Facilitator's Manual.
The Guide was developed through pilot testing and focus groups with caregivers
of seniors. It is based on the Canadian
Pharmacists Association’s Screening and Managing Medication
Problems in Isolated, Independent-Living Seniors project, funded
by Health Canada’s
Population Health Fund and in partnership with the Canadian Association
for Community Care and Canada’s
Association for the Fifty-Plus.
Medicine Chart
There is some basic information you need to know about the medicine the
person you’re helping is taking, especially if you have to act on
the person’s behalf with doctors, pharmacists, specialists or hospitals.
For instance, what the name is, what it is for, when and how to take it.
You can use tools such as a medicine
chart to help you keep track and take it along when you visit the
doctor or pharmacist.
Checklist: What Else to Know About the Person Taking Medicine
If you help someone fill prescriptions, take medicine or go to appointments,
you may need information such as: How many kinds of medicine does the
person take? When was the person’s last doctor appointment? When
was the last time the person (or you) talked to a pharmacist? If the person
sees a specialist, when was the last appointment? What kinds of ailments
or conditions does the person have?
Tools such as checklists
can help you keep track of these things.
|
|
|
|
