Medication

Many people with type 2 diabetes will need glucose-lowering medicines at some point to help manage their blood glucose levels.

People who have been living with undiagnosed type 2 diabetes for a while may need glucose-lowering medicines as soon as they are diagnosed.

In other cases, people who have had type 2 diabetes for a long time may need to start insulin as their diabetes progresses.

All people with type 1 diabetes need to use insulin.

How you can help

As people get older, their medication or insulin doses may need to be adjusted. It is important to talk to their healthcare professional if their blood glucose levels are regularly outside of their target range.

Encourage the person you care for to talk with their doctor or pharmacist about their medicines. Find out: 

• How they work
• The best time to take them
• Possible side effects to watch out for.

Organise a Home Medicines Review

The person you care for may want to book a subsidised Home Medicines Review. An accredited pharmacist will visit their home to help them understand and manage their medicines, and check that all the medicines they are taking work safely together.  

Help reduce medication errors

Medication errors can happen, especially when someone is taking a number of different medicines. There are a few things you can do to help reduce the likelihood of this happening. 

• If the person you care for has trouble seeing, turn on the lights and make sure they wear their glasses.
• Encourage them to read all labels carefully, every time they take their medicine.
• Keep an up-to-date list of all their medicines, including nonprescription medicines and supplements.
• Store their medicines in their original labelled containers.
• Try and use the same pharmacy for all their medicines.
• Use a medication organiser, such as an automatic pill dispenser or a Webster-pak^®.

A Webster-pak^® is a pre-packaged and pre-sorted medication dispenser. Talk to their pharmacist if you would like one for the person you care for, or to discuss other options for reducing medication errors.