It has been wonderful for my dad who has dementia, and now I am getting one for my friend who has trouble swallowing pills!” Practice with small candies. It’s best to start with very small candies and work your way up to ones the size of a lozenge. Forough, A. S., et al. (2018). A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down? A review of strategies for making pills easier to swallow. Signs that you are experiencing difficulty swallowing. These signs may indicate that you have dysphagia, or general problems with the mechanics of swallowing, even if temporary:

Conditions of the mouth or throat: If a person has a medical condition that affects their mouth or throat, this may make pill swallowing more difficult or painful. There are many reasons why you may feel the need to move and walk about more than usual. These may include a response to anxiety, to relieve pain or discomfort or becoming confused about where you are. This may result in you walking from an area of relatively low risk to an area of high risk, possibly getting lost or disorientated, especially at night. There may be safety risks associated with going into certain areas of your home alone, particularly if you experience difficulty when walking such as limited balance, for example out of the bedroom onto the landing where there is a risk of falling down the stairs. I love your cup–we already have 3! My 7-year-old has been fighting cancer for 4 years now. I want to make a suggestion that you send samples to childrens’ hospitals–I took one to Stanford (where my daughter is treated) and they had never heard of or seen your cup!!!! I think they should have them in all the childrens’ hospitals!” A study by researchers from the University of Heidelberg in Germany may help people with pill swallowing difficulties. They suggest two techniques that can help people improve their ability to get medicine down. Their report was published in the Annals of Family Medicine. This patented device is the property of Oralflo™ Technologies, LLC in Bridgewater, New Jersey, and is registered as a Class 1 Medical Device with the FDA. This product is only available from Oralflo™ Technologies, LLC.

Helpful Strategies:

If your keysafe is provided by your local council, they will often arrange for its fitting. If you buy your own and you do not know someone who could fit it for you, you may find that your local AgeUK have a handyman service which can help for a small fee. Personal locators are portable products designed to be carried by you when you go out. They enable authorised individuals, such as relatives or carers, to find out your location by logging onto the internet from a computer or smartphone. Most work via GPS (a satellite based global positioning system) and will allow individuals you have authorised to find your location (if you are carrying the device) to approximately 10 metres. They may not be able to find you if you are indoors unless they also contain GSM mobile phone technology. A major caveat here is that not all pills should be taken with food. Some pills will lose effectiveness if mixed in with soft foods. I am 68 years young and start each day by taking 14 pills, some of them horse pills, which takes me a minimum of a half hour, with some starting to dissolve before I get them down while my husband telling me I look like a pigeon drinking water.

A pharmacist created the Pill Glide Swallowing Spray, made for both children and adults, which comes in several different flavors like strawberry or orange.

The nature of your disability, for example is it progressive, or do your needs fluctuate with 'good' and 'bad' days. How might technology help with this? I received my “Oralflo” pill swallowing cup this AM and was a little skeptical at first that something that looked like a kids cup would work but I have no idea how it does it but less than 10 minutes later I was all done no after taste or gagging . It’s easy. I even combined some pills together. I love it. If a pill is approved to crush: Crush pill and add the powder to a soft/creamy texture such as applesauce. This will allow the pill powder to blend easily. Applesauce has been demonstrated to have minimal effect on altering medicines. I wanted to let you know that the Oralflo cup has made such a difference for me. I have to take 2 large tablets twice a day for the next year and before I received your product I was having great difficulty in swallowing them. In fact, many times I would choke and have to try them again. This was very frustrating and stress producing. Now with the Oralflo cup I can take them with no problems at all. An amazing product. I am surprised that you have not marketed it to Walgreens, etc. I will tell all my friends how well it works. Thank you so much.”