Products and support to assist the work of caregivers
The U.S. Census projects that soon, one out of five Americans will be considered a senior citizen — double the amount from the current estimates of one out of every ten.1 With the population rapidly aging, families are focusing more and more on later-life care for elderly relatives. In all, there are currently around 100 million U.S. adults who are caregivers for a parent, child, or other relative.2 Added to the aging population is the fact that an increasing number of individuals want to remain in their homes and not end up in nursing homes. So while around one in three Americans are currently caregiving, that number is likely to rise even further in the coming years — so much so that by 2040 there is projected to be a shortage of around 350,000 caregivers.3
In the simplest of terms, the job of a caregiver is to provide care for another person. Duties can include companionship, medical care planning and appointments, house cleaning, transportation, running errands, and several other responsibilities. No two caregivers’ jobs look alike, because the care they’re providing depends entirely on the person in their care. In fact, one caregiver’s routine can even change from day to day based on what is needed on different days. Many of the tasks remain the same from caregiver to caregiver, but how many of them are performed in a day, which ones, and other details all make one’s responsibilities unique.
CaringBridge gathered information from its community on the most common duties performed by caregivers. Of the 11 duties they listed, four revolve directly around the individual’s health — scheduling doctor’s appointments, physically giving at-home care, cooking and feeding, and helping with exercise.4 One of the major aspects of at-home care is managing medications. Oftentimes, seniors take multiple medications at a time. In a recent study, the National Library of Medicine reported that over 88% of adults 65 and older reported taking at least one prescription medication.5 So while every individual’s care plan and routine will look different, the vast majority of them will require help with medications.
The importance of medication management and adherence can’t be overstated. Medication adherence — or the extent to which a patient follows their doctor’s orders regarding medications — is important to not only seeing success in the condition it’s treating, but in order to avoid worsening of the disease, increased health care costs for additional doctor visits, and possible death.
In fact, of the five essential categories of tools that CaringBridge recommends in the caregiving line of work, one centers around medication management. Help with medication management can revolve around organizing medications, administering them in the right dosages, tracking and ordering them, and more.
In one study done by the National Library of Medicine, 25% of patients reported medication non-adherence. However, those individuals in the study who had a caregiver were half as likely to be non-adherent than those without caregivers. 6
In order to keep track of someone else’s medications, it’s imperative to put in place a system that will help you do so with routine accuracy and efficiency. Medication management tools like pill organizers, pill cutters, and pill crushers can be a huge factor in the success of the medication process, and that’s where Equadose can help.
· Keep track of medications with a pill organizer that allows you to remember whether or not you’ve administered medication on any given day — or if you’ve given it the right number of times, depending on the medication. It helps with organizing pre-sorted medications so administering them when the time comes is quick and efficient.
· Administer correct dosages with a pill cutter. An accurate, reliable pill cutter can help ensure you’re making an even split and not wasting any of the medication by having any small pieces inadvertently break off.
· Save money. Because some pharmaceutical companies charge by the number of pills and not by the dosage, one tactic some Americans use — including Equadose’s founders themselves — is to buy double the dose of medications and split the pills at home. Not all pills are able to be split, however, so check with your pharmacist before doing this.
· Help with medication administering when your patient can only have soft foods. Many medications can be crushed, so a pill crusher will help to grind the medications into a powder that can easily be administered along with a soft foods diet.
· Equdose founders are always looking for ways to add new products to their lineup. With a founding duo comprised of a nurse and an engineer, they have knowledge of healthcare along with the creativity and ingenuity to produce solutions to common problems. Their flagship product, the Pill Cutter V1, was invented by the duo in order to help them save money on their prescription costs.
Being a caregiver is no doubt rewarding work and can strengthen the familial bond between the one caregiving and the one being cared for. But if done so without any assistance for an extended period of time, it can bring out physical, mental, and emotional burdens, resentment toward the one they’re caring for, and more. It’s imperative for a caregiver to take their own health seriously and make it a priority so they can be as healthy as possible to give the best care possible. Having the right people in your corner to assist and the right products to help your caregiving go smoothly are crucial.
With the help of Equadose, you can make the medication management part of your caregiving duties a more refined, efficient, and effective process. The Equadose products were borne of a couple’s frustration with the healthcare process and medication costs, and now that couple is shining a light on their customers’ other pain points. After their flagship product was a solution to their own frustrations, they started creating other products out of an innate desire to help others who were frustrated with other medication and healthcare product concerns. Their desire to create solutions that will benefit others is as inspired as the caregivers who are using their products.
References
1. Economic Innovation Group An Aging U.S. Population Isn’t Going to Help U.S. Workers https://eig.org/aging-population-impact/
2. Guardian Standing Up and Stepping In. https://www.guardianlife.com/reports/caregiving-in-america
3. Care.com Top 11 caregiver duties to know. https://www.care.com/c/senior-caregiver-duties-definition/
4. CaringBridge 11 Most Common Caregiver Duties. https://www.caringbridge.org/resources/caregiver-duties-responsibilities
5. National Library of Medicine Prescription Medication use, Coverage, and Nonadherence Among Adults Age 65 and Older: United States, 2021-2022. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11533129/
6. National Library of Medicine Medication Adherence Is Associated with Having a Caregiver Among Cardiac Patients. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3787847/