Don: Family, friends, colleagues and acquaintances – Independence in managing medicines
Listen to patients and health professionals speak about their experience with taking multiple medicines.
Don
Male
Age at interview: 70
Number of medicines: 5
Cultural background: Anglo-Australian
Don receives occasional reminders from his wife to take his medicines, particularly when they are on holidays.
I think my wife might give me a gentle reminder sometimes, if we're away and we're out of routine. She has been quite supportive but in the main, I haven't really needed much of a reminder, although in South America earlier this year, believe it or not, I got pneumonia and I was admitted to a very primitive hospital in northern Argentina and she was very good and we had to change our routine, but again, I was on antibiotics for three days on a drip and so that interrupted everything we did. But we coped with that. That was fine. But other than that, my wife has been really good that way, but I haven’t, I can't truthfully say that I've needed much of a reminder. It would be in the rare instances ... particularly if my wife sees me with a very ruddy face at night, ‘Did you take your medication?’ but other than that, no.
The Living with multiple medicines project was developed in collaboration with Healthtalk Australia.