Emma: Organising and storing medicines – How people store their medicines

Emma
Female
Age at interview: 41
Number of medicines: 19
Cultural background: Anglo-Australian

Emma tends not to forget her medicines that can be stored where she can see them. She finds it more difficult to remember the medicines that need to be stored in particular ways.

So there is also my new drug that I only started three weeks ago that I do take with my breakfast as well. Because it's refrigerated, I have forgotten that once since I started it. It’s not something you should really skip because it's a steroid. I’m trying to find ways around trying to remember, maybe put it near my milk, near my cereal so I can pull it out at the same time. So just, yes, started trying to remember to do that, to put it back in the fridge in the same spot because I guess I felt quite strange when I didn’t take it that day. I think, because I've got … when I'm at home I have most of my medications sitting on my fridge next to where I eat breakfast so they're actually visually there. So I can remember. 

In the evening when I sit at my table it's the same thing. So it's just the ones like that are hidden that I forget to take. So I guess my blood pressure medication is sitting in my bed when I leave for work in the morning because I do take that half an hour before I get out of bed. Then when I'm at work I'll take one. I usually feel a bit sort of down by lunchtime, like my blood pressure feels like it's dropping a bit. So I do remember that one. That’s usually in my work drawer. Yes, because I've left the other one sitting in my bed, when I get home I don’t usually see that because I'm not in the bedroom. So, yes.

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The Living with multiple medicines project was developed in collaboration with Healthtalk Australia.