Tips for Helping the Elderly with Ordering Medication Online
Many people can benefit from ordering their medication online so that it’s delivered right to their door, but some people, especially those who are not very tech savvy, can find the process confusing and overwhelming. If your elderly parent, grandparent or loved one takes regular medications, getting their prescriptions online can save a lot of time, stress and trips to the pharmacy, but they may need your help.
In this guide, we share practical tips for helping an elderly loved one when ordering medicine online to help make the process straightforward and stress-free.
Talk to them about the benefits of medication delivery
If you think that your loved one will benefit from online prescription services, have an open chat with them about it and explain why it could be a good idea. Some older people may be hesitant about doing things differently to how they always have done, so it’s often useful to share with them some of the benefits, such as:
Fewer Trips Out
If your loved one has mobility issues, would have to go and collect medications in poor weather or has limited transport options, getting to the pharmacy can be stressful or even unsafe. Home delivery means prescriptions arrive without the physical strain of travel.
No More Last-Minute Rushes
Life happens — and sometimes a prescription runs low before you’ve had a chance to collect it. With a delivery service, medication can be ordered to arrive when it’s needed, reducing the risk of missing doses.
Extra Support for Carers
If the correct medications are being delivered to the door, family members or carers don’t have to rearrange their day to include a pharmacy trip. This frees up time for other aspects of care and can mean less juggling of responsibilities.
Peace of Mind
Both the person taking the medication and their loved ones know the right medicines will arrive reliably, in the correct packaging, with everything clearly labelled.
When combined with an easy online ordering process, medication home delivery can make a real difference to the quality of life for older people, along with more peace of mind for those who care for them.
Where possible, involve your loved one in the process of ordering medication online. Even if you’ll be the one managing their medications at home day-to-day, giving them a say in how things are set up helps maintain their independence and dignity.
Get them signed up
There are various options for medication delivery, but if you choose PillTime, an NHS pharmacy service, signing up is very straightforward.
Just fill out the simple form, which takes just a couple of minutes. You will need the name of the person the medications are for, their date of birth, postal address and an email address. You can sign up on someone else’s behalf as long as you have their permission to do so.
Once the account has been set up, you’ll receive an email confirming that PillTime is your chosen NHS pharmacy.
You can then start ordering medication online through your computer, tablet or phone and you can download the PillTime app (available on Apple and Android devices) to your smartphone for an even simpler experience.
You can link your loved one’s NHS account to the app, which makes it quicker and easier to manage prescription orders.
Use a medication pouching service
For many older people, especially if they take several different medications every day, managing these tablets and other medicines at home can be quite challenging. Medications need to be sorted into different doses, which can be time-consuming, confusing and mistakes can sometimes happen.
A way to avoid these issues is to use PillTime’s pouching service. This means that all medications are pre-sorted and packaged into handy pouches that are labelled with the dose, along with the time and date the medicines should be taken.
These pouches are then sent to the recipient’s door, via tracked delivery, ready for the medication to be taken exactly as prescribed. This system helps to ensure that there are no missed doses or mistakes when sorting tablets.
The pouches are also a lot more convenient if leaving the house, as you simply rip off the pouch or pouches needed for the time away to take with you and don’t have to carry around any big boxes of medication.
Find out more about how pouching works.
Easily plan ahead for holidays and repeat prescriptions
Ordering medication online for your loved one means that it’s usually straightforward to make tweaks to orders and deliveries if they are going to be away from home for a period of time, or when a new order is needed so that there is no chance of running out.
Planning ahead by ordering online a couple of weeks in advance is always recommended, and with PillTime’s app, you can track the status of your order at any time; you don’t need to rely on local pharmacy opening hours to find out where the medication delivery is up to.
Involve your loved one when you order medicine online for them
Even if you take the lead when it comes to the technology, it can be helpful to involve your older loved one as much as they are comfortable with. This could be just showing them the app and getting them to check that all of their medications are included on the order, as well as letting them see when the next delivery is due.
Small touches like this can help someone feel more in control of their health and less like things are being done to them rather than with them. This sense of independence is very important for lots of elderly people.
Helping an elderly family member or friend order medication online can feel daunting at first, especially if they’re not used to technology. But with a bit of preparation, clear communication, and the right support, it can make life that little bit easier for everyone involved when taking the stress out of prescriptions. And most importantly, involving the person you’re helping in the process can give them confidence and peace of mind.
We’re here to make medication simple, safe, and stress-free. Find out more about our online medicine delivery service.