My MIL is mixing up when to take her medications. I am curious about the automatic dispensers. I see some are very pricey, but we figure they are actually less expensive than adding the very basic medication management service at her senior housing building. What has been people's experience?
But I would find them on the floor all over the condo.
The blister packs worked for sorting the meds, but he still dropped them from time to time and was always unaware of doing so. I know my Dad at 92 cannot pick up anything off the floor without using a grabber and he could not see a pill on the floor either.
Most dispensers I have seen run on batteries. No pills are dispensed if the battery is dead. Just a thought.
I think they are a good option for people with MCI or who just have a hard time remembering pill schedules, and perhaps for those with early dementia who can still function being on their own while the caregiver is at work, but they are in no way the solution for those who are not fully on board or for those with dementia who for whatever reason aren't being checked on daily or at least several times a week.
We still found many pills were still in the slots or on the floor. His dementia was just too progressed for him to use it.
Now that he is here, I hand them to him with a cup of water and watch to make sure he takes them
It's round with little compartments to put the pills in. When it's time to take a pill, it will ring to alert. It stops ringing when the pills are taken out...but will continue to ring for 1/2 hour if pills are not taken out. When it's time to take a pill again, it rotates around so that those particular pills can be dispensed. I bought it through Amazon. It was one of the best purchases I made to help make sure mom was taking her meds. Thankfully instructions for setting it up and programming it were very clear.
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