By Alice Vanderpol, 2018 Pharmacy Assistant of the Year
“I’m finding it hard to climb the stairs these days.”
“My memory isn’t what it used to be.”
“I’ve lived here for over 40 years – I couldn’t imagine living anywhere else.”
These are common issues for older people and quite often we hear these phrases. Staying in your own home as you get older is called ‘aging in place’. For many older Australians, this is the ultimate dream for their last years. Community pharmacies have an integral role in providing the right care and support in order to help not only the elderly but also the disabled to continue to live safely and independently.
I love that we as pharmacy assistants get to play a part in this process! As mentioned in previous articles, I have developed a soft spot for our older generation. Working in pharmacy has opened my eyes to their vulnerability, grief and frustration as they transition into a season of life where they can no longer do the things they used to do. They grieve the life that once was. Their desire to stay independent for as long as possible is important and this is something we can help them achieve.
There’s been an increasing number of elderly Australians wanting to stay at home longer. This creates an opportunity for community pharmacies to maximise their customer service with professional services targeted at ‘in-home support’. Professional services such as Home Medication Reviews (HMRs), MedsChecks, Home Deliveries, Hiring In-Home (Home Health Aids) and Dose Administration Aids (DAAs) delivery services are a few ways community pharmacies can make a real impact in their communities.
I spent the first few years of my pharmacy journey out the back in a window-less room packing Dose Administration Aids called Webster-pak. The pharmacy serviced over 255 customers both at home and in nursing homes. Along with our DAAs packing service, we offered a home delivery service to compliment this. This, along with many other services, provided a way to help support and enable the elderly community to keep their independence and stay at home longer.
DAAs packing services are increasingly becoming an integral part of community pharmacies and it’s not just the elderly that can benefit from them.
Who can benefit from a Webster-pak?
- Elderly people
- People on multiple medications
- People who travel often or are going on holidays
- School children on medication
- People who want to improve their medication/vitamin compliance
- People going into respite care
A Dose Administration Aid is a container used to help organise medicines, labelled to show the day and when in the day, medicines should be taken. The Webster-pak Multi Dose is a type of DAA that I worked with in my pharmacy. This is a sealed, weekly, calendar pack. All regular medication that needs to be taken each week is sealed within the blister compartments. The Webster-pak is designed to be as simple as possible. It is arranged into four columns across for the four doses of the day and seven rows down for the seven days of the week.
Do you or someone you love have difficulty remembering when to take your medicines? I know I struggle to remember to take my vitamins every morning! This is one reason why this would be ideal for a person who sometimes forgets whether or not they have taken their medicines (leading to risk of double dosing) and requires a visual cue, or a patient whose medicine-taking is being monitored by a carer. DAAs can assist you to clearly see when to take your medicines and quickly check that you have taken your medicines.
According to the Pharmacy Guild of Australia, it is estimated that up to 400,000 people are admitted to hospital each year in Australia as a result of medicine-related problems. By offering a DAA, this can help keep your loved ones safe and reduce the risk of medicine-related admissions.
Compliance is another huge indicator as to whether a DAA would be a suitable support for you or your loved ones. Adherence to a medicine plan is important for good health outcomes of people of all ages. However, evidence suggests there is an increase in the number of people failing to complete their course of medicines and therefore putting themselves at risk (or possibly reducing the effectiveness of the medicines they are taking). According to the Pharmacy Guild of Australia, statistics show that between 30 and 50 per cent of people fail to take their medication doses exactly as prescribed by their healthcare professional, or do not finish their medicine course.
How true this seems to be! I’m sure we’ve all heard at one point a customer saying how they have stopped taking their blood pressure tablet because their blood pressure was back to normal, or how they forgot to take their cholesterol tablet yesterday so today they took two to make up for it!
Even if none of the above is currently an issue for you or your loved ones, the matter of convenience is another reason why so many people are using DAAs, especially if they are taking a lot of medication. Having medicine packed into individual, daily doses in a convenient, easy to use, blister pack makes life so much easier! It’s one less thing for you or your loved ones to not have to worry about.
I know a lot of us can joke about our loved ones getting ‘old’. I jokingly threaten my dad that I’ll give him a Webster-pak for his next birthday if he doesn’t take his medications correctly! In my first year working at the pharmacy, I even made up a Webster-pak for my husband with his favourite Dutch liquorice in it…you know, just to make it easier for portion size and calorie control, right?!
But in all seriousness, no amount of humour is going to hide the reality that age is inevitable; so understanding ways to help support and ease the ageing process brings our loved ones comfort, reassurance and peace into an already uncertain, sometimes troublesome, time of life…not just for them but for you too!