Meals On Wheels of The Greater Lehigh Valley (MOWGLV) and Center for Humanistic Change (CHC) have teamed up to help seniors keep their medications safe. Many prescription medicines contain opioids, which are narcotics used to provide pain relief. One in three adults with a Medicare Prescription Plan was prescribed opioids in 2016. It is likely that many MOWGLV clients have been prescribed an opioid prescription for pain. Prescription drugs, such as opioid pain killers, depressants and stimulants should be secured. With caretakers, family, neighbors, and other supports frequently in a client’s home, it becomes important to safeguard these medications from abuse.
With funding from Lehigh and Northampton County Drug and Alcohol Commission and an anonymous donor, CHC provided MOWGLV with kits to keep medications safe. Information included with the kits explains how, and why, people might abuse medications, and advice on getting help for a loved one struggling with addiction. The kits are delivered to MOWGLV clients when a case manager conducts a visit with a new client.
If one of your MOWGLV clients has not received one of these kits andwould like one, please have him or her call our office—610-691-1030 and we will be happy to send one with the next meal delivery.
We are grateful to the Center for Humanistic Change for engaging us in this project. It allows us to focus on another way in which we can support our clients’ health and choice to successfully age in place.
Monica McCandless, our Director of Client Services, sees this as part of our core mission, “People think we only deliver meals, but we are a vital delivery service that gets the latest information and services to homebound clients who don’t get out to community fairs and other non-profits”.