How Can You Help Your Parent Remain Compliant with Their Medications After a Heart Attack?

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Elderly Care in Morris County NJ

No matter what type of health complications or conditions that your elderly parent is suffering, medication compliance is one of the most important elements of helping them manage these issues Elderly-Care-in-Morris-County-NJand maintain their health. Medication compliance is all about being sure that they take the medications that their doctors have prescribed or follow through with treatments and guidelines in the way that they are meant to. This is vital to ensuring that your aging loved one gets the benefits from these medications and treatments that their doctor intends.

Medication compliance is especially important if your parent has suffered a heart attack. Heart disease continues to be the leading cause of death for both men and women, and each year more than 25 percent of the heart attacks that occur happen in those who have already suffered a heart attack. This makes it absolutely crucial that your parent understands their individual risk for suffering a heart attack, takes steps to reduce those risks, and gets the care that they need if they do suffer such an attack. Remaining compliant with their medication helps to get your parent healthier and make the most of their recovery after an attack, and reduces the risk that they will suffer a subsequent attack.

 

Some of the ways that you can help your parent remain compliant with their medications after a heart attack include:

  • Help them understand their guidelines. The first step in remaining compliant with medications, treatments, and guidelines is to make sure that your aging parent understands them. This means knowing what their prescriptions and treatments are, how they are supposed to be taken, and the schedule the doctor designed. These guidelines are presented for a specific reason and making sure that your parent understands them is essential to getting the most benefit of them.
  • Set timers for them. Most elderly adults are already taking several medications and managing a variety of health complications and issues. This can make it challenging for them to remember when and how to take their prescriptions or follow their treatments and guidelines. Setting timers for them can help trigger their memory so that they follow through with their prescriptions in the way that their doctor instructed. This can be as simple as a kitchen timer or you can take advantage of technology by setting their mobile device to send an alert.
  • Consider home care for them. An in-home senior care services provider can make a tremendous difference in your parent’s ability to maintain their compliance after a heart attack. This care provider can help your parent to understand what they are supposed to do and why so they are more willing to go along with it. They can also provide reminders so that your parent takes their medications or follows through with their treatments and guidelines in the way that their doctor intends. This can go beyond just making sure that they take their medication when they are supposed to, to ensure that they taken it when they are meant to and in the way that they are meant to, such as with or without food.

 

If you or an aging loved one are considering hiring professional elderly care in Morris County, NJ, please talk to the caring staff at Generations Home Health Care today. Providing Home Care in Somerset, Essex, Union, Morris and Hunterdon Counties. Call us today at (908) 290-0691 or (973) 241-4534.

 

Source:  http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/Conditions/HeartAttack/LifeAfteraHeartAttack/Life-After-a-Heart-Attack_UCM_487069_Article.jsp#.WHElK_krK00

Susan Myer, RN, BSN, CCRN, CDP
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