Practical, Healthy Outcomes for Our Neighbors. . .

The following post comes from one of our Case Managers at the Cottages (CitySquare's "tiny homes" community):  

 

There is a neighbor at The Cottages who for the last several months, if not years, has been struggling with medication and mental health management. One day, I was trying to brainstorm ways to assist her with taking her medications so that she could get back to baseline, when I noticed that the majority of her psych medications had instructions on the bottle to “take at night.”

Because there are no staff on property at night, it made it difficult to help this neighbor with taking her medications at night.

During one of this neighbor’s phone visits with her psychiatrist, I asked her permission to sit on the phone call and speak with her doctor. She granted me permission and I asked the psychiatrist if this neighbor absolutely had to take certain medications at night or if there was a possibility she could take them in the morning. As it turns out, she can actually take all but one of the medications in the morning. 

After this conversation, I was connected with the neighbor’s Metrocare case manager who was able to provide me with a med minder. With the neighbor’s permission, we can assist her with organizing and managing her medications and can bring her the medications in the morning. And, if we are not able to, her home health aide can assist her in reminding her to take her medications.

After a month and a half of this, the neighbor has now ceased to sporadically cry; she has less and less episodes of anger and she is able to have a competent conversation about her own wellbeing.

We really are better together. We cannot do things alone. When we work together, we elevate the situations of our neighbors and even ourselves sometimes. Together, we rise!