Did I take my morning medication? Will I have enough until the next appointment? Did I inform other family members about the changes in the prescription from the hospital?

Managing medication in home care is not just about handing over pills. It involves a series of small tasks every day, from doctor visits, arranging prescriptions, receiving medication, storing it, to confirming its intake. Even if there's a strain somewhere in this process, it is not easily visible from the outside.

A survey reported by the German news site "BUSINESS Panorama" on October 6, 2026, highlighted the difficulties of medication management within families and the burden it places on supporting family members.

Understanding the Meaning of "About Half"

According to the report, a survey by the German Foundation for Quality in Care (ZQP) found that about half of the families reported that in the past six months, medication was either mistakenly used or not used at all for the person receiving care. In 19% of cases, such issues occurred repeatedly.

Additionally, 26% reported experiencing multiple issues related to expired medication, missing medication, or lack of prescriptions.

The survey targeted 1,012 family caregivers aged 40 to 85, who support individuals aged 60 and over, certified for care in Germany, at home for at least six months, at least once a week.

It's important to note that this survey is based on family responses. It does not mean "half of the care facilities had medication incidents" or that half of all medication opportunities were incorrect. It reflects whether there were issues within a certain period for the person supported by the respondent.

Moreover, this ratio cannot be directly applied to home care in Japan. The medical and care systems differ. However, the question of what is needed to continue using medication safely at home is relevant to Japan as well.

Looking Beyond the Number of Medications to the Complexity of Management

The same report indicated that 59% of respondents said the person receiving care regularly uses five or more types of medication.

With multiple medications, there are more things to check regarding the timing, usage, and storage methods. If prescriptions change or the person managing them changes, the information to be shared increases.

However, it is premature to judge a prescription as "dangerous" just because there are more than five types of medication. There may be necessary medications used for treating multiple illnesses.

The guidelines from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare also distinguish polypharmacy from merely having a large number of medications. The focus is on the state where risks of adverse effects, medication errors, and inability to use as directed arise in connection with the use of many medications.

What needs to be checked is not only "how many types there are" but also "whether they are being used in a way that suits the current state and lifestyle of the person." Whether to reduce medications should also be reviewed with a doctor or pharmacist, without making changes based on self-judgment.

What Can and Cannot Be Said from the Numbers of Falls and Hospitalizations

The survey revealed that 36% of respondents said the person receiving care experienced at least one fall with injury in the past 12 months. Emergency hospitalizations were also 36%, and at least one hospitalization was 51%.

These figures indicate significant health and safety challenges in the daily lives of those requiring care.

However, the numbers in the report alone do not allow us to conclude that "medication errors caused falls or hospitalizations." The periods for asking about medication troubles and falls or hospitalizations differ (6 months vs. 12 months), and no causal relationships for individual events are shown.

When considering the safety of the elderly, confirming medication use and attributing immediate health issues to medication are separate matters. It is necessary to look at the overall lifestyle while maintaining this distinction.

Voices of Innovation and "Still Difficult" Seen on Social Media

Apart from direct reactions to this report, specific experiences related to managing parental medication are posted on overseas social media and forums.

In a thread on Reddit's "AgingParents" asking how to remind elderly parents to take their meds, the following experiences were shared:

• Sisters share the responsibility of calling in the morning and evening to support their parent's medication.
• A day-of-the-week, morning-and-evening medication case was helpful, but due to declining memory, they switched to verification by a caregiver visiting twice a day.
• Even with innovative packaging, issues with vision or cognition made it difficult for the person to handle medication alone.

These are personal experiences and not data proving the effectiveness of specific methods. Nonetheless, they convey the circumstances that cannot be uniformly resolved by "just sorting the medication" or "reminding by phone call."

Tools that were once helpful may no longer suit the person's changing condition. What is needed is not to enforce a predetermined management method but to ascertain what is currently causing difficulties.

Family Fatigue Cannot Be Overlooked in Considering Safety

In the reported survey, 53% of family caregivers felt psychological burden, and 38% felt physical burden. 61% postponed their important plans for caregiving, and 42% neglected social interactions.

For families caring for people with dementia, the psychological burden rose to 71%, and the physical burden to 47%.

These numbers do not allow us to conclude that tired families caused medication errors. However, it is clear that those responsible for daily checks also need rest and support.

Adjusting appointments before medication runs out, confirming whether medication was taken when unsure, and being concerned about parents even during work. These concerns are not easily captured by visible caregiving time alone.

When problems arise, simply concluding "the family should have been more careful"makes it difficult for the supporting side to voice their concerns. Considering that families can consult is also a condition for supporting safe medication use.

In Japanese Households, First Share "What You Don't Know"

In Japan, in response to this report, instead of immediately trying to reduce the number of medications, the starting point should be conveying the difficulties occurring at home to healthcare providers.

Bring a medication notebook to doctor visits or pharmacies and have them check prescriptions from other medical institutions as well. If there are missed doses or leftover medications, communicate them without hiding. The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare's guidelines also emphasize understanding medication information and support from multiple professions.

When consulting, it is easier to discuss if you specify the situations you are struggling with, for example:

"Family is absent during the day, so we can't confirm if the medication was taken."
"The medication bag seems difficult to open."
"After discharge, the medication changed, and the family is not on the same page."
"The person says they took it, but the remaining count doesn't match."

With such information, it becomes easier to discuss medication methods and support approaches with doctors and pharmacists. Methods like medication cases or single-dose packaging should also be consulted based on the nature of the medication and the user's ease of use.

Responses to suspected missed doses or duplicate doses vary depending on the medication. It is also important to decide in advance on the consultation point and confirmation method.

To Support the Person, Do Not Isolate the Supporter

In the report conveying this survey, Ralf Suhr, Chairman of ZQP, emphasized the need to systematically incorporate family caregivers as equal partners in medical and care support processes.

Families are also those who notice changes in daily life that are not visible in the consultation room. The fact that medication is left over, that packaging has become difficult to open, and that previous procedures can no longer manage it. Only with a system that connects these insights to professionals can family experiences contribute to support.

To protect a parent's medication, families do not need to strive for perfection alone. Being able to say "I can't continue with this method" and changing methods according to the person's condition. This accumulation supports living at home.

Source

1. BUSINESS Panorama/dts News Agency (October 6, 2026)
   Referencing ZQP survey targets, medication troubles, falls and hospitalizations, family burden, and statements by the chairman. Figures are based on the original report content.
   https://business-panorama.de/news.php?newsid=6713707

2. Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare "Guidelines for Appropriate Use of Pharmaceuticals for the Elderly (Specific Edition by Treatment Environment)"
   Concept of polypharmacy, information sharing through medication notebooks, confirmation of medication status, avoiding self-judgmental reduction or discontinuation, and basis for support from multiple professions.
   https://www.mhlw.go.jp/web/t_doc?dataId=00tc4324&dataType=1

3. Reddit "How do you remind your elderly parents to take their meds?"
   Summary of actual family posts, including sharing morning and evening calls, utilizing medication cases, and limitations due to cognitive changes. Not direct reactions to the current news or representative of overall public opinion.
   https://www.reddit.com/r/AgingParents/comments/1my97yw/how_do_you_remind_your_elderly_parents_to_take/