Timed pill dispenser ideas for elderly parent with dementia at home

[Hellacute]

I’ve been looking but I can’t quite figure out what I’m looking for.

Mum is 84 and has dementia. At the moment she’s managing at home on her own with me visiting a few times a day. We’ve sorted her taking her morning tablets by herself but are having a few issues with her night time ones.

She needs to take them around 9.30pm or later but ideally not earlier as they make her sleepy and a bit confused. Does anyone know of a pillbox where I could set a timer and a compartment opens and then stays open until they’ve been taken? No alarms or anything - just a simple open at this time type?

A lot of what I’ve seen looks over complicated.

You’re unlikely to get one that stays open as they are often time limited to prevent overdose of taking meds several times in the day. You could see if you could reduce the alarm sounds ? I’ve had patients who use the pivotell but it needs loading.

If she is forgetful and taking a sleeping tablet I would be very weary. Is there anyway you could contact her social worker and ask for a package of care just for evening medication call be put in place?

Is there a local lifeline company that could install some equipment with a pill dispenser attached. If she doesn’t take them on time the contact centre will ring her to prompt her

Would this work? https://www.alzproducts.co.uk/pill-dispensers-organizers?srsltid=AfmBOorOFHSra9uf8C_arSfXz0fwvwOUQv49VTRohHsNWeunHLHolheI

Thanks all. It’s not sleeping tablets as such. It’s tablets (an antidepressant) where the side effect is sleepiness.
i wouldn’t mind filling it everyday, im visiting anyway. I just can’t visit at 9.30 every night.

We don’t live in the UK and there’s nothing like that here.

Plus she doesn’t answer the phone.

This sounds bonkers but how about an automatic pet feeder? the lid would open and the pills could be in a little dish inside. It could be plain, wouldn't have to say "Mr Fluffy" or have paw prints all over it.

We have one with two separate timers on so you could have one opening at say 9pm then another at 8am next day.

And inside could be a note saying "mum! take your pill!". You could even set an Alexa or Google alert to say "time to take your pill Barbara" or whatever, set to the same time.

We have this one for a relative. It has more compartments than you want, but is good for preventing them taking too many. The relative still often phones to say it's not working, as they don't always remember they have already taken the dose. But it does stop them overdosing.

Amazon link timed pill box

When my mother in law was in the early stages of dementia and was forgetting her evening pills, I used to ring her each night and stay on the phone while she took them. It took less than five minutes and it was a good way of checking in on her every day as well.

my mum developed dementia a couple of years later and it was much more difficult to manage her medication for various reasons. I was fortunate because her local district nurses were willing to call twice a day to give my mum hwr tablets. The GP adjusted the dosages so that she only had to take her tablets twice a day. It isn’t a service that is offered by many health authorities now but it might be worth checking if your mums GP can make a referral to the district nursing service.

Can she be prescribed a different AD which she could take earlier in the day?

My MIL has a weekly pivotell pill dispenser delivered from her chemist with all her pills loaded in and timings/alarms pre set for the week. It works well and we now believe she is taking her pills at the right time. We took it with us on a recent trip away and could see for ourselves how efficient it was and how when the alarm went off she was in the routine of going over to it, tipping it up and taking her tablets. Sometimes her medication has changed for various reasons and the chemist deals with all this by adjusting what is in there and what time it needs to be taken etc.

My Mum (who has Alzheimer's) has a Tab Time dispenser. I couldn't recommend it more! It turns round at a set time every day. She has the alarm now but didn't at first. You can set it for once a day or multiple times a day. As she only had one a day, it holds 28 days of tablets. So easy to use that she was able to take her medication herself until she got really bad. Now the carers use it. She's had it for over 2 years now and it's still going strong:
tabtime.com/products/automatic-pill-dispenser

Mum has a pivotell that worked well until she stopped recognising the alarm. Now the carers have to check and remind her but that wouldn't work for 9.30.

That actually sounds like what I’m looking for! Will look into that!

No. She’s actually amazingly stable mood wise and I don’t want to rock the boat by changing anything!

I thought of an automatic pet food dispenser too!

However, whatever device you use, how will you guarantee she takes the tablet? People with dementia are not good with new things. She may put the dispenser away in a cupboard (or the bin). Or she may not realise there is a tablet inside, or she may take the tablets out but put them down the side of the sofa.

Speaking from long experience of dementia with my mother, the only way we knew she'd done something was if someone witnessed it.

Anyway, good luck!

A pivotell will leave the tablets available until the next dose. No need for a pet feeder 😁

The trouble with dementia, once short term memory really is a problem, is that the person is all too likely to forget what was said almost as soon as they’ve put the phone down.
At least that was our experience, with both DM and FiL.

For a while we had someone coming round to make sure Dm took her Alzh. meds, but she was always of a suspicious nature (as regards anyone coming to the door) and was all too apt to tell them that there was nothing wrong with her, so she didn’t need any medication, thank you!