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Your Health
Photos and story by Jennifer Goodwin
Knowledge is Power
Why more seniors are turning to pharmacists like Anya Kelly
Anya says older adults need the extra advice.
After six weeks in the hospital due to severe back and
hip pain,Teresa Knott was ready to go home. Going
home with her was the near-dozen medications prescribed
to her for a number of different ailments.Blood pressure
pills,baby aspirin,painkillers — the list of prescriptions
was lengthy.
“Up to that point, my mom had been very astute about
her medication because she had cared for my father, who
was a stroke survivor,” says Teresa’s daughter Christine
Knott, who is herself an epidemiologist and researcher in
specialized geriatric services.“But as she felt more and more
unwell and the pain was increasing, she was losing confidence
in her ability to manage her prescriptions. She was
handing them all over to me and saying ‘you figure it out’.”
That’s when the Knotts met Anya Kelly. Anya is a pharmacist
at Providence Care’s St. Mary’s of the Lake Hospital.
Anya’s job involves consulting one-on-one with outpatients
in an adult day hospital program, as well as with inpatients
like Teresa.Anya is also the first and only Certified Geriatric
Pharmacist in Kingston.She says she is not surprised to meet
seniors who are unclear about how and when to take their
medications.
“It scares me when I meet patients who do not carry an
updated list of medications with them,” says Anya, noting
how many patients do not understand the directions that
doctors give them with each new prescription.“No wonder
so many of them have returned to our hospital taking their
old pills as well as their newly prescribed ones,” she says.
Anya spent over an hour in her first meeting with Teresa
and Christina Knott, sorting through all of Teresa’s medications
and inquiring about her symptoms and pain levels.The
informal meeting-style appointment allowed both Knotts to
ask questions about which medications could be taken
together,and how to control some of Teresa’s unwanted side
effects, such as nausea.
“Being able to ask questions and get it explained to you
June 2008 • 48 • Fifty-Five Plus Magazine