Is there a type of alarm system that can be set for multiple daily, weekly and monthly alarms?

Yes there are pill dispensers. The one I have can have pills dispensed 3 times a day. When it's time for medication, the pills are released and an alarm beeps. The dispenser locks, preventing anyone but the key holder to open and take extra meds. My sister would fill the pill dispenser, and even though I live 700 miles away, I knew what time the dispenser would beep and I would call my mom and tell her to take her pills (she didn't always understand what the beeping was). It worked great for us.

They will reach a point where the pills will sit untouched no matter what bells and whistles device you buy. My cousin put all the pills in clearly marked envelopes ('Take these Saturday morning.' 'Take these Saturday evening.' ) All the pills scattered all over or sitting there untouched. Calling them on the phone? That's no guarantee they will take them. They reach a point where they can't or won't answer the phone, and will often put the receiver down and fall asleep, walk away, or whatever. Hate to be a Debby Downer here, but at that point, when there is no one to give them their pills on time in person, they aren't capable of living on their own any more. My mother was taking lots of extras: great big vitamin pill, little iron pills, a stool softener to counteract the iron pills, then a kaopectate pill when needed, plus other vitamins! Vitamin B, Vitamin C, a costly ultra strong Vitamin D, Tylenol, antacids, plus cholesterol, blood pressure, anti-anxiety, and I forget what else! Ridiculous! What on earth all those vitamins were supposed to do for an 80 something old woman was beyond me. After she went into the nursing home, they eventually scaled back on all that stuff, thankfully, why did mom have to swallow those huge pills, and so many??

I was going to pipe in here with the "once they can't remember to take medications, no reminder in the world will help"...and that was the first response. It IS a frustrating situation to be in.

Google: medication dispensers and start your search. Depending on your parent's abilities and lack thereof, you can make a decision about what "may" work for you.

OMG--calling my mother every time she was supposed to take something.....that would be 4-6 phone calls a day and she cannot even work her cell phone.

I do 'kind of' agree with dgAging. My mother is on so many meds, she take 5 at bedtime to make sure she sleeps all night! I once sat her down and asked what exactly she was taking and why: turns out about half are to counteract the other half. All she REALLY needs is her insulin and Glucophage. She will religiously take her other meds. And religiously complain about the cost. I look forward to her ancient dr retiring in the next few months and mother being seen by a much younger, more up to date Dr.

Good Luck with the pill thing. This will be me trying to do this for mother pretty soon.

The MedReady dispenser worked for my mother, while she lived alone. Later when she needed a 24/7 caregiver, it served to remind her caregivers when to offer Mom her meds. I loaded it weekly. You can find it on MedReady and on Amazon.

Order an extra tray with a lid so that you can refill it at home and then just swap out the trays. An extra key is also a good idea.

Consider that she might actually feel better without any medications if she is in her final years. Once my dad went off all medications, he felt better than he had in quite some time.

My suggestion is for you to put these in your cell phone and then call her and remind her. She will think you are a genius and you get the satisfaction of knowing she took her meds, etc. It's a win win situation.

There are several national and regional companies that offer a Medication Dispensing systems that you pay a monthly fee for. You prefill the machine with medications and set the time for the medication to be taken. It will make a sound to alert Mom, if she does not take the medication at the correct time it will move that dose over and send an alert back to the company who could then notify you. All the systems are a little different so check them out and find the best one for Mom & you.

And, if you can't get her to assisted living, here is a device that worked temporarily for my Mom. Google for automated medicine dispenser with alarm. Depending upon the number of times a day Mom needs meds, it can be set up for 1,2 3 or 4 weeks. YOU put the pills in and the times to dispense. It gets locked and at the time set, an alarm rings for up to an hour. Then Mom opens that groups of meds (nothing else is available to her) and hopefully takes them. If she doesn't open it, the system locks and she can't access it. This prevents double dosing. There was an extra service that it would notify me if she didn't open the dispenser. My Mom's meds were important but not critical so I didn't use this part of the service.

Once they reach this level of confusion, pill boxes and alarm bells don't seem to help. My MIL would still forget to take pills, or forget which day it was and take them twice. Try to get mom to assisted living where someone else minds the meds and cooks the meals.