Suggestions on locked medication dispenser

AmandaGdnr

My mom had been diagnosed with dementia and I've recently had to take her medications to my house to keep her from getting to dose her own or go through them. She had been dosing her own but after her overdosing bc she took her meds twice something has to be done differently. Even with me dosing them weekly she's still taking them twice sometimes bc she runs out before my dad. I need to find a locked pill dispenser that will sound an alarm when it's time for her to take it and preferably only unlock when it's time to take the med and notify me if she misses a dose. She has been known to skip meds and sometimes change them around thinking they are dosed wrong. If anyone could help me out on recommendations I'd really appreciate it. A link to where I can purchase would be helpful as well if it isn't too much trouble.

Thank you all in advance!

Amanda

jfkoc

The only reliable system is to hand out the meds and watch them being swollowed.

Emily 123

Hi,

I must agree with jfkoc. Part of the disease means that your mom will struggle to learn a new routine or piece of technology. To do that she needs a working short term memory, which it doesn't sound like she has. Could your dad assist her?

Short term memory lets you retain a piece of information for a little bit, until you either file it away for future reference (in long term memory) or decide it isn't important, and discard it. Unfortunately, especially in Alzheimer's, the short term memory area of the brain is affected early on. What that will look like to you is that your mom will be able to talk about something in that moment, but once her attention is turned away, that information is gone.

Be careful, because if she's forgetting meds she's probably at the point where she needs more hands on assistance with other things to make sure she stays physically and financially safe.

These helped me a lot:

https://www.smashwords.com/extreader/read/210580/2/understanding-the-dementia-experience/Medium,Arial,Black,White,One-and-a-Half

5 losses: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awBm4S9NwJ0

Teepa-multiple videos: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2E2lPBsUeBjA1Utglo8q6yANAijEf8cX

no perfect answer

We used one for my mom to help her keep some control of her life and honestly it worked well. She looked forward to the beeps. When she went into MC they took it away as they take over everything. The doses stay correct so you don’t have to worry. We got a Livefine.