My wife was diagnosed with PD in 2009. she also suffers from dementia.
I am her carer and have drafted an emergency plan in case I suddenly fail. The plan requires my local authority social services to attend were such an event to occur. I have been recently been told that social workers will only dispense tablets if they are in a blister box. My wife has to have her PD tablets at nine different times per day.
My problem is that the largest blister box I know of only has four compartments for each day. These are usually marked morning, afternoon, evening and bedtime. The frequency for dispensing the tablets could probably be changed from nine to eight and I could ask my pharmacy to provide two blister boxes for use in an emergency marked with the appropriate times. Does anyone know of a better solution?
Hi Geo,
We noticed this was your first post, so we wanted to take a moment to say hello, and welcome you to this lovely little community. We found a good starting point for some research on medication schedules and helpful tools here. We hope you’ll make use of our website at your leisure, including the handy search bar that will lead you to resource documents, research news, blog posts, and older forum threads discussing the subject of your choice. We also have a free and confidential helpline, at 0808 800 0303, staffed with incredibly knowledgeable and supportive advisers. You needn’t be a PWP to call and your questions need not be medical. They are truly a wonderful resource – as you’ll also find of our wise and compassionate forum community.
Our best wishes to you and your wife, and again, a hearty welcome!
Jason
Mod Team
Sorry I only know of the 4 compartment type as you do but out of curiosity I did a quick search in addition to the above local authorities or at least some of them also publish guidance and there would also appear to be quite a lot of discussion and debate in this area. I didn’t read everything in detail but there would appear to be some room to manoeuvre according to local policy ie deviation from the policy with input from your GP or consultant. In my experience any deviation from local authority policy is nigh on impossible so you may have to battle but it is perhaps worth looking into as a last resort. You have probably already done this but in the first instance I would speak to the pharmacist - there must be others with this problem surely - and GP and consultant if needs be. I would be interested to hear how this is resolved in due course if you’ve time to post. Sorry I can’t help more but I wish you luck.
Tot
If you ask the Occupational Therapy dept of your council they can supply a dispensing timed carousel with alarm. It is lockable and also designed for people with dementia. They might be able to help generally and it could help to have a general OT assessment. Hope this helps. Julia
