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Today I'm sharing my best tip for pill box management. You can do make the pill organizer easier to use for the person you're caring for.
We looked everywhere for pills with my dad's daily medication times written on it. A type of pill box that'd let you write down the times onto the pill box. Or a pill box that you could custom order with your times printed on it.
As my dad's cognition declined, he needed more and more help taking the right pills and taking them on time. After 15 years caregiver trial and error, we finally came with our best pill organizer solution ever, by buying number stickers, and sticking them onto our dad's pill box. Graycare is NOT a doctor.
To improve the quality of life in your family caregiving dynamic, a well-designed pill box is used daily, multiple times per day. That means even a small improvement can make a big positive impact on your daily life.
If your life could be just a smidge easier every day into the future, sounds good to me?
A 2013 university study found that "Pillboxes can be effective in helping older adults take their medication provided they are designed according to both dosage prescription and the user’s functional capacity." [1]
In particular, they looked at how elderly people used pill boxes, and the challenges encountered.
The solution we came up with is the best I've seen. It's an original design by yours truly, lil gangreen.
We took the pill box my dad knows how to use best, then added on easiest-to-read number stickers onto the lids, so that my dad (and family members) can see the numbers extra clearly.
This is not on automatic easy pill dispenser gimmick claiming to solve your every problem. But it's the easiest to use version we've jimmied up to date. Patent not pending.
That's why it is so hard to find a 1-day pill box with perfect pill times. The most common type of pill box is the 7-day pill box. 7-day pill boxes often have a big M for Monday or big F for Friday. But it's much more difficult to buy a store-bought 1-day pill box with different compartments by the hour.
My dad takes pills at 8am, 11am, 2pm, 5pm, 8pm, and 11pm. There's a mass market for 7-day pill boxes, but the pill box manufacturer isn't going to make a pill box with times special for me... How many people in the room take pills at exactly the same hours as my dad? Not many, and that's why the pill container setup I'm showing you today is so MacGyver-style innovative.
You can buy the same pill box we did on Amazon, the EZY DOSE XL Size Weekly Push Button Pill Organizer #ad. Or you can keep using the pill box you currently use and just add the stickers on.
Kinda like iPhone, the best pill box is the simplest one. Whatever's most intuitive without reading an instruction manual.
My dad had poor vision, cognitive decline, impaired memory, declining fine-motor capabilities, and an attitude of entitlement on top of all that.
My opinion is, the same pill box design principles for people living with advanced diseases like Alzheimer's or dementia apply to pill boxes for all people.
You can buy the same stickers we did on Amazon, the 480 Pieces Polka Dot 1-40 Numbers Stickers Pack with bold black number for readability, color border for easy recognition, white background for extra contrast.
We chose circular stickers 1" in diameter, after we carefully measured the lids on our XL sized pill organizer. The lids were almost 1.5 inches tall and wide, on both top and bottom, so we had extra margin to work with!
The pack came with 480 stickers, of numbers 1-40, but remember we only needed to us the 8, 11, 2, and 5. For each we needed at least two or four stickers of the exact same number. That's so that we could, for example, get the 8am (1x) and the 8pm (1x) on both the top (1x) and bottom (1x) of the lid. That's 4x stickers you need total.
It fits, it's bold, it's got a white background to cover the day of the week that's already printed on the pill box.
I've already explained why we're putting number stickers on the pill box. We're transforming the "Weekly Pill Planner" into a "Daily Pill Planner". But there's one more piece of magic for you to discovery.
Most long plastic pill boxes are transparent or translucent in color, so when you'r looking at the big M for Monday then pop the lid open, now you're looking at the M-for-Monday upside down, like it's a W-for-Wednesday.
Let's end this burden now.
To carry for the rest of your life, we're creating a better pill box.
I'll spare you lengthy details, and just write the basic steps below.
Just make sure the numbers show "right side up" when the lid is both closed and open. If it's "right side up" when closed then "up side down" when open, you're going to cause all kinds of vertigo/confusion.
As the daily caregiving responsibilities become more advanced, so does the technology we use to adapt to our new circumstances. We talk about assistive technology a lot.
The solution my family has invented is not he nicest-looking pill case. With those loud primary colors, it's not likely to match the furniture. But the time for interior design has far gone.
Call it a pill box labeling technique. Call it my best idea yet.
By adding bold number stickers onto both the top and bottom sides of your swing-top pill box, you'll help the aging person in your family more easily recognize the right pills to take at the right time. It works in home and when traveling, anywhere your trusty pill container follows you!
Shoppers please check our newer reviews of weekly pill organizers for once-a-day, twice-a-day, thrice-a-day, or four-times-a-day doses per day. Longer planners can shop full monthly pill organizers, fashion bugs can shop trendy pill organizers, and tech geeks can shop electronic and tech-advanced pill organizers.
References
[1] A descriptive study about the use of pillboxes by older adults. Frank Roger Defanti e Souza, Carla da Silva Santana. Bio-Engineering Inter-Unit Program, University of São Paulo, São Carlos, Brazil. Scientific Research Open Access.
