University of FloridaSolutions for Your Life

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Publication #FCS8600-ENG

Healthy Living for Elders: Tips for Remembering Your Medication1

Linda B. Bobroff2

Medications can help control a number of diseases and conditions. But they only work when we remember to take them! Select tips from the ones listed below to help you remember to take your medication.

Refrigerator note:
Put a picture of yourself or a loved one on your refrigerator with a note reminding you to take your medication.
Keep them on your night table:
If you need to take your medication in the morning, this could be a good reminder.
Keep them next to your toothbrush:
Take your medication before or after brushing your teeth.
Use “sticky” notes:
Put reminder notes to take your medication in places where you will see them.
Buddy System:
Arrange with a friend to call each other every day with a reminder to “take your medication!”
Voice mail service:
If you have a service, record a reminder for yourself, and have the service call you
every day.
Use a weekly pill box:
These are available at pharmacies, and many supermarkets.
Have a grandchild call:
Ask a grandchild, or another relative, to call every day and remind you to take your medication.
Computer start-up reminder:
Have a ‘take your medicine’ reminder appear every time you turn on your computer.

Footnotes

1.

La versión en español de este documento es Vida Saludable: Consejos Para Recordar Sus Medicinas (FCS8600span). This is document FCS 8700-ENG, one in a series of the Department of Family, Youth and Community Sciences, Florida Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611. Publication date: March 2004. This leaflet was developed with funding from the Florida Department of Elder Affairs in partnership with state, county, and local agencies. Please visit the EDIS Web site at http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu

2.

Linda B. Bobroff, PhD, RD, LD/N, professor, Department of Family, Youth and Community Sciences, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611. Reviewed by Jennifer Hillan, MSH, RD, LD/N, former ENAFS educator/trainer, University of Florida.

The Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS) is an Equal Opportunity Institution authorized to provide research, educational information and other services only to individuals and institutions that function with non-discrimination with respect to race, creed, color, religion, age, disability, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, national origin, political opinions or affiliations. For more information on obtaining other extension publications, contact your county Cooperative Extension service.

U.S. Department of Agriculture, Cooperative Extension Service, University of Florida, IFAS, Florida A. & M. University Cooperative Extension Program, and Boards of County Commissioners Cooperating. Millie Ferrer-Chancy, Interim Dean.