Helen: The costs of taking multiple medicines – The impact of reduced work hours and low income
Listen to patients and health professionals speak about their experience with taking multiple medicines.
Helen
Female
Age at interview: 58
Number of medicines: 10
Cultural background: Anglo-Australian
Helen can manage her medicines now because she is working full-time. She is concerned about how she will afford her medicines in retirement.
Yeah, because … arthritis has been an expensive condition. Because the alternative medications are not cheap, and I'll go to places—warehouse-type places—where I can get them as cheap as I possibly can. Because I'm taking these things every day, I'm chewing through them rapidly. I seem to be spending a lot more money on healthcare than I ever was. Because I've had to add three new medications to the list, with arthritis—and they're medications I take every day—I'm noticing the costs are going up rapidly. I know that's going to continue to be the case. It's okay right now, because I'm at work. But one of the things that concerns me is at some stage, I will not be working and I'll be on a much, much lower income. I'm actually really concerned about how I might be able to afford to keep up the regimen that I'm on at the moment.
The Living with multiple medicines project was developed in collaboration with Healthtalk Australia.