Handling Medicines Socialcare Guidance

Contents
Introduction
How to use this guidance
Chapter 1: Principles of safe and appropriate handling of medicines
Chapter 2: Handling medicines in social care settings
• Controlled drugs
• Disposing of medicines
• Medicine administration
• Minor ailments
• Record-keeping
• Storage of medicines
• Self-administration of medicine
• Staff training
Chapter 3: Handling medicines — requirements for specific services
• Adult placement
• Boarding schools, school care accommodation, special residential schools
• Care at home, domiciliary care
• Child care, early education
• Children’s home, secure accommodation, short break and respite services
• Day care
• Drug and alcohol rehabilitation
• Foster care
• Housing support, supported living
• Palliative care
• Residential care for adults, residential care for older people, short break and respite services
• Residential family centre
Chapter 4: The medicines toolkit
Choice and consent
Obtaining supplies of medicines
• Repeat prescriptions
• Obtaining acute prescriptions
• NHS prescription forms
• Changing pharmacy supplier
• Verbal orders
Administration of medicines
• Procedures for giving medicines
• Giving medicines to people who cannot swallow or need to have their medicines given via their feeding tube
• Covert administration of medicines
• Monitored dosage systems and compliance aids
Storage of medicines
• Controlled drugs in care homes
• Refrigerated storage
Record-keeping
• Medicine Administration Record (MAR) charts
Transfer of medicines when people move to another health or social care setting
• Transferring to another setting
• Returning from hospital stays
Legislation and guidance
Key references/bibliography
Glossary
Acknowledgements
The Handling of Medicines in Social Care

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Introduction
Today’s medicines are powerful compounds that control disease, ease discomfort and prolong life for millions of people and are generally beneficial. Unfortunately no medicine is without side effects and some are worse than