Sue: Organising and storing medicines – The work involved in organising medicines

Listen to patients and health professionals speak about their experience with taking multiple medicines.

Sue
Female
Age at interview: 65
Number of medicines: 16
Cultural background: Anglo-Australian

Sue acknowledges that it is a lot of work organising her medicines. But for her it is natural, as she takes this approach to other areas of her life.

For me, this just seems the natural thing to do. I’m aware that there'll be other people who do other things but for me it seems like this is what I do, isn't it? It’s the way I manage my finances I suppose and the way I manage other parts of my life, so it's the way I manage my medications as well. I just tend to be … I have always been, I think, a fairly busy person and fairly organised. So, maybe I'm anal retentive but whatever, I've got a shopping list in there that I put things on as I run out of things. So when I go shopping there's my list. It’s not on the back of an envelope, it's in a little book and so I'm just one of those people who organises things. So my medication is very organised as well. Other people would probably go, oh heavens, that's way too much work and it wouldn't suit them. But for me it means I don't have to worry about it anymore because I know it's … I'm on top of everything.

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