If the Person in My Care Says “No!”

Medications and Dementia

Here are some additional tips for you if you are caring for a person living with dementia. People who live with dementia may refuse medications more often. Review the following tips to see if any work for you.

• Stay cheerful: Keeping positive is an important aspect of dementia care. A calm and gentle approach builds trust and lowers anxiety in the person living with dementia.
• Keep it simple: Talk to a qualified health care professional about which medications are absolutely necessary and which can be trimmed back. Showing one pill at a time, giving one or two-word cues, and having a glass of something to drink at the ready might be all you need to decrease anxiety.
• Be together: Stay with the person when taking medications. Take your medications (or a small candy) with the person when they take theirs.
• Come back later: Try again in 15 minutes with a gentle voice and positive attitude.
• Don’t force it: In many cases, a person has the right to refuse medication, even if they have dementia.

Speak to a health care professional about your role to support medication management in accordance with the person’s level of dementia.  For example, hiding pills in food may work sometimes, but it is not appropriate to hide pills in the food of someone who is competent to refuse. If medication refusal is causing distress in the older person every day, it may be time to consider if there are other ways of taking the medication (patch, liquid) or if stopping the medication all together is more beneficial for comfort and quality of life. Do not stop any medications until you have spoken to a qualified health care professional about this issue.