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I. How We Work in Washington. Based on your preferences, we provide you with information about one or more of our contracted senior living providers ("Participating Communities") and provide your Senior Living Care Information to Participating Communities. The Participating Communities may contact you directly regarding their services. APFM does not endorse or recommend any provider. It is your sole responsibility to select the appropriate care for yourself or your loved one. We work with both you and the Participating Communities in your search. We do not permit our Advisors to have an ownership interest in Participating Communities.
II. How We Are Paid. We do not charge you any fee – we are paid by the Participating Communities. Some Participating Communities pay us a percentage of the first month's standard rate for the rent and care services you select. We invoice these fees after the senior moves in.
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V. Complaints. Please contact our Family Feedback Line at (866) 584-7340 or ConsumerFeedback@aplaceformom.com to report any complaint. Consumers have many avenues to address a dispute with any referral service company, including the right to file a complaint with the Attorney General's office at: Consumer Protection Division, 800 5th Avenue, Ste. 2000, Seattle, 98104 or 800-551-4636.
VI. No Waiver of Your Rights. APFM does not (and may not) require or even ask consumers seeking senior housing or care services in Washington State to sign waivers of liability for losses of personal property or injury or to sign waivers of any rights established under law.I agree that: A.I authorize A Place For Mom ("APFM") to collect certain personal and contact detail information, as well as relevant health care information about me or from me about the senior family member or relative I am assisting ("Senior Living Care Information"). B.APFM may provide information to me electronically. My electronic signature on agreements and documents has the same effect as if I signed them in ink. C.APFM may send all communications to me electronically via e-mail or by access to an APFM web site. D.If I want a paper copy, I can print a copy of the Disclosures or download the Disclosures for my records. E.This E-Sign Acknowledgement and Authorization applies to these Disclosures and all future Disclosures related to APFM's services, unless I revoke my authorization. You may revoke this authorization in writing at any time (except where we have already disclosed information before receiving your revocation.) This authorization will expire after one year. F.You consent to APFM's reaching out to you using a phone system than can auto-dial numbers (we miss rotary phones, too!), but this consent is not required to use our service.
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My dad is a serious hypochondriac. My mom enables this. Is it safe that I have emptied lots of OTC medicine and replaced it with tic tacs. Both of them have diminished sense of smell....
Regardless of what you suspect, I would not tamper with their meds, because you can't be sure if they really need some of them or not.
I'm familiar with people who are obsessed with medical conditions that don't seem to be genuine. Taking away the meds or convincing them is pretty much a waste of time. Diagnosis and treatment is a process and you need to have a doctor and probably a psychiatrist involved too.
You might also look into Conversion Disorder or other illnesses that can be brought on by mental disorders. Often it's not intentional by the patient. Hypochondria suggests they intend to pretend, but that's not always the case. The patient often has issues with emotional or mental signals that really do bring on medical conditions. For example, they really do have a tummy ache, or they really do have a headache or sinus infection. It's brought on my mental reasons, but it's real. That's why I would consult with the doctor regarding the discontinuation of any meds.
Good luck in dealing with this. It's very challenging . I know. I know one elder person who was helped tremendously with medication and some counseling. So there is some hope.
If they don't notice the tic tacs, then their dementia is pretty far along. At this point they should not have any unsupervised medications. For their own safety, they need 24/7 supervision. Start looking at facilities. We moved mom to an ALF, where all meds are in a med room and nowhere near the patient. We still had to check her purse and drawers for contraband. She had nitro pills squirreled away, and was not happy when I took them away and gave them to the nurse.
Thank you for your answers. Specifically I was talking about OTC medications. My dad was recently hospitalized for a GI bleed from overuse of Tylenol. His mind tells him he needs them. The same day he got home from the hospital he begged for them. So I replaced them. I'm trying to find out if what I'm doing well harm him. He is not diabetic
It sounds as though both of your parents need serious assessments (neurology, neuropsych, psychiatry) of their ability to live on their own. Has either of them been diagnosed with dementia or cognitive decline? "His mind tells him he needs Tylenol". That doesn't sound like someone with adult level reasoning skills.
No. As far as I know neither has been diagnosed with any medal disorder. I left my life in the city to come to this small rural town. No one has $ for ALF.o just want to know if it is safe to replace the OTC medications.
Agilmore1964, depending on which state you're in, there may be an option to use Medicaid to pay for a good portion of the cost of assisted living for your parents (or if not an ALF, then in-home help to come in and dispense medications, etc). I kind of agree that at this stage they are not handling their meds well, but there's a limit to what you can and should safely do. I switched my parents to a medi-set for their daily medications, which has helped me at least keep track of what they take and what they skip. As for replacing the Tylenol with ticktacks, I agree it's best to discuss this with their doctor first.
Agilmore1964, I would suggest seeing if you could talk with the doctor and let him/her know what's going on. Because of privacy laws, the doctor might not be able to tell you anything, but you can give the doctor information. Unless someone on this forum is a doctor or pharmacist *and* knows their particular situation & medical history, we can't tell you if it is safe to replace the OTC medications, unfortunately. I know when I'm stressed out, I'm too overwhelmed to seek anything but the easy answer, and I want someone to just *tell* me what to do. Unfortunately, we can't do that, but we can give advice to help you take baby steps to a big problem. There are tamper-proof medication dispenser systems that you can pay a monthly fee for that can help regulate the medications by dispensing the meds at programmed times. But, unless someone is monitoring them 24-hours a day, there is no way to stop them from going to the store and buying more bottles of Tylenol & etc. I agree with a bunch of the other folks here, that you should try to discuss things with the doctor, to see if what you're doing is safe or going to do more harm than good. Best of luck!
Thank you everyone! I have discussed my "therapeutic lying" including the replacement off Tylenol with tic tacs, with ALL of his doctors and nurses. Of course although they could not give me consent, I was advised that it would cause no harm.
Surprised the doctors hadn't suggest replacing the Tylenol with a much milder over-the-counter medicine, like for example a baby aspirin [not saying to use this, but just showing as an example] ... a hypochondriac can be convinced that this new medicine works even better than Tylenol if you can find published reports on the internet as to how great this medicine can be. Talk to their doctors first.
By proceeding, I agree that I understand the following disclosures:
I. How We Work in Washington.
Based on your preferences, we provide you with information about one or more of our contracted senior living providers ("Participating Communities") and provide your Senior Living Care Information to Participating Communities. The Participating Communities may contact you directly regarding their services.
APFM does not endorse or recommend any provider. It is your sole responsibility to select the appropriate care for yourself or your loved one. We work with both you and the Participating Communities in your search. We do not permit our Advisors to have an ownership interest in Participating Communities.
II. How We Are Paid.
We do not charge you any fee – we are paid by the Participating Communities. Some Participating Communities pay us a percentage of the first month's standard rate for the rent and care services you select. We invoice these fees after the senior moves in.
III. When We Tour.
APFM tours certain Participating Communities in Washington (typically more in metropolitan areas than in rural areas.) During the 12 month period prior to December 31, 2017, we toured 86.2% of Participating Communities with capacity for 20 or more residents.
IV. No Obligation or Commitment.
You have no obligation to use or to continue to use our services. Because you pay no fee to us, you will never need to ask for a refund.
V. Complaints.
Please contact our Family Feedback Line at (866) 584-7340 or ConsumerFeedback@aplaceformom.com to report any complaint. Consumers have many avenues to address a dispute with any referral service company, including the right to file a complaint with the Attorney General's office at: Consumer Protection Division, 800 5th Avenue, Ste. 2000, Seattle, 98104 or 800-551-4636.
VI. No Waiver of Your Rights.
APFM does not (and may not) require or even ask consumers seeking senior housing or care services in Washington State to sign waivers of liability for losses of personal property or injury or to sign waivers of any rights established under law.
I agree that:
A.
I authorize A Place For Mom ("APFM") to collect certain personal and contact detail information, as well as relevant health care information about me or from me about the senior family member or relative I am assisting ("Senior Living Care Information").
B.
APFM may provide information to me electronically. My electronic signature on agreements and documents has the same effect as if I signed them in ink.
C.
APFM may send all communications to me electronically via e-mail or by access to an APFM web site.
D.
If I want a paper copy, I can print a copy of the Disclosures or download the Disclosures for my records.
E.
This E-Sign Acknowledgement and Authorization applies to these Disclosures and all future Disclosures related to APFM's services, unless I revoke my authorization. You may revoke this authorization in writing at any time (except where we have already disclosed information before receiving your revocation.) This authorization will expire after one year.
F.
You consent to APFM's reaching out to you using a phone system than can auto-dial numbers (we miss rotary phones, too!), but this consent is not required to use our service.
I'm familiar with people who are obsessed with medical conditions that don't seem to be genuine. Taking away the meds or convincing them is pretty much a waste of time. Diagnosis and treatment is a process and you need to have a doctor and probably a psychiatrist involved too.
You might also look into Conversion Disorder or other illnesses that can be brought on by mental disorders. Often it's not intentional by the patient. Hypochondria suggests they intend to pretend, but that's not always the case. The patient often has issues with emotional or mental signals that really do bring on medical conditions. For example, they really do have a tummy ache, or they really do have a headache or sinus infection. It's brought on my mental reasons, but it's real. That's why I would consult with the doctor regarding the discontinuation of any meds.
Good luck in dealing with this. It's very challenging . I know. I know one elder person who was helped tremendously with medication and some counseling. So there is some hope.
We moved mom to an ALF, where all meds are in a med room and nowhere near the patient. We still had to check her purse and drawers for contraband.
She had nitro pills squirreled away, and was not happy when I took them away and gave them to the nurse.
medications.
There are tamper-proof medication dispenser systems that you can pay a monthly fee for that can help regulate the medications by dispensing the meds at programmed times. But, unless someone is monitoring them 24-hours a day, there is no way to stop them from going to the store and buying more bottles of Tylenol & etc. I agree with a bunch of the other folks here, that you should try to discuss things with the doctor, to see if what you're doing is safe or going to do more harm than good. Best of luck!