Diana: Organising and storing medicines – Storing medicines in the original packaging
Listen to patients and health professionals speak about their experience with taking multiple medicines.
Diana
Female
Age at interview: 22
Number of medicines: 13
Cultural background: Anglo-Australian
Diana:
Diana has tried storing her medicines in different spots around the house, but has found keeping them altogether and in their original packaging is the safest and most convenient storage method for her.
I keep them all together in a bag … it's like a cooler bag but I don't really use it for that. It’s just nice and safe, I can zip it up. I keep them all pretty much in their original packaging except I keep a copy of the boxes. I’ve got a file for all my scripts and everything; I keep a copy of the boxes in there. I’ve tried using the seven-day pill planner ones but it's just not for me.
Jacqueline:
So it helps you to have them all in the one place?
Diana:
Yeah, I've tried having them in different locations, different rooms for different times, but they all just get forgotten that way. Having them all out on a bench, if I'm in a rush in the morning and knock them off the bench, I don't want to risk them being picked up by any of the dogs in the house or anything like that … It was just the first one that I actually found and it was a good size because I can just stick everything in there, I can see at a glance if I'm getting low on something. But I also know that it's strong enough that if it falls off the bed, it's not going to break and have tablets go everywhere.
The Living with multiple medicines project was developed in collaboration with Healthtalk Australia.