After a long hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, UM Shore Regional Health’s Transitions Pharmacist, Melanie Chapple, PharmD, returned to the Cambridge Senior Center last week to provide medication management assistance to local seniors. There were more than 40 seniors in attendance — more than double the number that she was used to seeing during previous visits.
“Unfortunately they have not opened the Hurlock Center, but bus transportation was provided for the seniors that went to Hurlock so they could come to Cambridge,” Chapple said. “A good number of my Hurlock seniors were there. And I almost cried because Beulah Jackson, who had turned 100 years old when I was last in Hurlock, was there! Now 102, she told me that her granddaughter took her to Stevensville for her birthday dinner where she had a pina colada!”
While there, Chapple gave a talk on blood pressure and medications and had seven new consults with local seniors that she will follow up on. She also helped judge the Center’s Easter bonnet contest.
“It was a very good crowd,” Chapple said. “I look forward to getting our lecture series up and running there as well.”
Through an initiative inaugurated by Shore Regional Health’s Population Health Department in early 2020, Chapple began visiting nine senior centers throughout Caroline, Dorchester, Kent, Queen Anne’s and Talbot counties once a month to meet with seniors who needed help with their medications. The program was very successful until COVID-19 restricted in-person events at the senior centers. Chapple has resumed her visits to senior centers in all counties except for Queen Anne’s, where she hopes to return soon, but in the meantime is providing consults “virtually.”
“Medication can be a real source of confusion for seniors,” Chapple said. “And there can be adverse effects from not taking medications correctly. Problems stemming from medication misuse are often a factor when seniors need to be admitted to the hospital.”
Chapple also helps seniors overcome possible barriers to medication, for example, helping them sign up for automatic refills, assisting with paperwork for drug assistance programs, and reviewing their Medicare Part D coverage.
For more information about the medication assistance program offered at area senior centers, contact Melanie Chapple, PharmD, Transitions Pharmacist, 410-822-1000, ext. 5456, or mchapple@umm.edu