Get the app that makes your AARP membership truly mobile!

Content starts here

Why Pharmacists Should Be Every Caregiver’s Go-To Ally

Explore how pharmacists go beyond just filling prescriptions to offer medication counseling and safety tips to avoid drug interactions

Paul Wynn,

AARP

Published April 17, 2026

Liam Eisenberg

Key takeaways

Pharmacists are an underutilized resource, uniquely positioned to help individuals and caregivers navigate the complexities of medication management.
Caregivers can improve medication safety by consistently asking three core questions: what the medication is for, how it should be taken and what to expect it will do.
Pharmacist-led medication reviews can help avoid medication issues, but caregivers should be prepared to provide legal authorization to access information.

In his home in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, Daryl Nauman has converted his office into a personal clinic where he organizes his wife’s medications. Daryl, 70, manages about 18 pills a day for his wife, Cena, 69, for multiple conditions, including myotonic dystrophy, heart failure and multiple myeloma, a blood cancer.

“I’ve got pill planners, backup pills, even emergency medications if something changes quickly. It’s a lot to keep straight,” says Daryl, who retired more than a year ago from his sales manager role to take care of his wife.

More Ways to Benefit

View All

Related Benefit 1
Related Benefit 2
Related Benefit 3
Related Benefit 4
Related Benefit 5

Like millions of family caregivers, Daryl sits at the center of a complex medication web, working with multiple doctors, overlapping prescriptions, rising drug costs and the constant risk of drug interactions. Yet one of the most accessible — and often underused — resources stands just across the pharmacy counter.

“Pharmacists can be far more than dispensers of medications,” says Daniel Krinsky, a pharmacist and owner of EduCare4U in Stow, Ohio. He adds that, “pharmacists can serve as critical partners in supporting caregivers, particularly when caregivers know how to fully access and leverage their expertise.”

Pharmacist Nicole Schreiner works with long-term care facilities after closing the drug store's retail operations last year.

Courtesy Nicole Schreiner

Missed opportunities at the counter

Pharmacists remain one of the most trusted health care professionals, yet many say their expertise is overlooked. Too often, working with local pharmacies is reduced to a simple give-and-take: a store clerk or technician rings up the prescription, a bag is handed over, and the opportunity for meaningful medication guidance is lost.

“The reality is that staffing shortages and reimbursement challenges have forced many pharmacies into a high-volume, transactional model,” says Nicole Schreiner, head of Streu’s Pharmacy in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Streu’s works only with long-term care blister packing services after it closed its money-losing retail operations a few months ago.

At a community pharmacy, caregivers account for about half of the people picking up prescriptions, says Krinsky. “Caregivers are the ones filling pill boxes, tracking doses and making sure medications are actually taken.”

Yet those same caregivers are often missing from key conversations. “I have many patients who tell me, ‘My spouse or my daughter handles all my medications,’ but they’re not at the visit,” Schreiner says. “When caregivers are involved directly, outcomes are almost always better.”

One study, conducted at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, showed that pharmacist follow-ups after hospital discharge can prevent complications and save money. During the study, individuals taking multiple medications, and those with pneumonia, heart failure or on blood thinners, were contacted within three days of leaving the hospital. Most had at least one medication issue that pharmacists helped resolve. The program reduced 30-day readmissions from 22 percent to 16 percent and cut hospital costs by an average of $582 per person.Even when counseling is offered, the environment in most retail pharmacies can work against taking full advantage of the pharmacist’s expertise. Crowded stores, long lines and lack of privacy often make it difficult to discuss sensitive medication issues, from side effects to mental health risks and other important warnings.

“The current model is really designed to dispense medications, not provide care,” Krinsky says. “That’s slowly changing, but it’s a disconnect that needs to be corrected even more.”

Three questions every caregiver should ask

Krinsky trains his students at the LECOM School of Pharmacy in Erie, Pennsylvania, and Bradenton, Florida, to begin every counseling session with what are known as the “three prime questions,” a simple framework caregivers can also adopt:

What is this medication for?
How should it be taken?
What should I expect it to do?

Most Popular

From there, the pharmacist can fill in the gaps: when the medicine should start working, what side effects to look out for and how to know when it is working.Caregivers should also press further, asking about:

Timing (morning versus evening dosing)
Food interactions and can or should it be taken with food
Compatibility with other medications
Possible side effects
What to do if a dose is missed or symptoms don’t improve

“People who leave the doctor’s office are overwhelmed and may not remember every detail,” Krinsky says. “We should be reinforcing that with information and providing details to ensure safe use.”

Krinsky also emphasizes a technique called “teach-back,” where individuals or caregivers repeat instructions in their own words. “It’s the best way to make sure the information actually sticks.”

Navigating specialty medications

For caregivers managing complex, chronic illnesses, the pharmacy counter is only part of the story. Increasingly, the most critical medications are handled through a different channel altogether: specialty pharmacy.

“Specialty therapies are typically for chronic, very complex and often rare conditions,” says Lucille Accetta, chief pharmacy officer at CVS Health, which runs one of the country’s largest specialty pharmacy operations. “They involve medications that require special handling, careful monitoring and a much more hands-on level of support.”

Join Our Fight for Caregivers

Here’s how you can help:

Sign up to become part of AARP’s online advocacy network and help family caregivers get the support they need.
Find out more about how we’re fighting for you every day in Congress and across the country.
AARP is your fierce defender on the issues that matter to people 50-plus. Become a member or renew your membership today.

Though they represent just 4 to 6 percent of all prescriptions in the U.S. (roughly 250 million to 350 million annual claims), specialty drugs account for a disproportionate share of overall drug spending, reflecting both their complexity and higher cost.

These medications are different by design. Many are biologics or advanced therapies that require careful handling, including injectables, infusions or drugs that must be refrigerated and delivered under tightly controlled conditions. Newer treatments for Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and certain cancers, for example, may involve infusion-based therapies administered in clinical settings, often with ongoing monitoring for side effects.

Natalie Elliott Handy credits CVS with being a lifeline in caring for her mom, who has Parkinson’s and lives in an assisted living facility in Tennessee. When a Medicare claim was mistakenly denied because her mom was flagged as deceased, CVS quickly identified the problem, helped resolve it and ensured her mom’s medications continued without interruption. From overnight shipping of temperature-sensitive Parkinson’s medications to constant updates by text and email, Handy describes their support as a “concierge service.”

“Specialty pharmacists operate within a coordinated, high-touch model that has extended far beyond dispensing in our case,” says Handy, CEO of CareForward, a technology platform that matches people to volunteers offering time, talent or resources.

Request a medication review

Many caregivers do not fully realize that pharmacists are available to provide formal medication reviews. Medication therapy management (MTM), a range of patient-focused services, includes comprehensive medication reviews (CMR), in which pharmacists check all prescriptions for effectiveness, drug interactions and gaps in care.

“These reviews can take 30 minutes to an hour,” says Schreiner, president of the Pharmacy Society of Wisconsin. “We’re looking at the full picture: what’s working, what’s not and what might be missing.”

These sessions are often covered by insurance, including Medicare with preapproval, or cost $100 to $150 out of pocket. But there’s a catch: Caregivers often hit a legal roadblock. To speak directly with a pharmacist about a loved one’s medications, they usually must provide documentation, such as Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) authorization, medical power of attorney or court-appointed guardianship, before gaining access to critical, potentially lifesaving information.

Caregivers as medication advocates

In long-term care settings, caregiver advocacy becomes especially important. Most nursing homes do not employ full-time, in-house pharmacists. Instead, medication management is typically provided through long-term care pharmacies and consultant pharmacists who serve multiple facilities. In this situation, pharmacists work largely behind the scenes with nursing staff, making communication and coordination essential.

“Because caregivers are often the first to notice changes in their loved one’s condition, it’s important to raise concerns and request medication reviews to ensure treatments remain appropriate as conditions evolve and to help prevent problems before they escalate,” says Schreiner.

Handy and her family have learned the hard way that caregivers can’t afford to be passive when it comes to medications. “We have to be advocates, coordinators and problem solvers because the system doesn’t always catch what’s falling through the cracks.”

Daryl Nauman has learned that managing medications is as much about advocacy as organization. His wife’s prescriptions are spread across multiple pharmacies: a local chain, a cancer center pharmacy and a specialty pharmacy that dramatically reduced the cost of one drug from $600 a month to just $18. With multiple specialists involved, her hematologist stepped in to coordinate most of her medicines and provides input when they need more specialized medication advice.

Pharmacists could play a similar role, especially when caregivers actively engage them. “Pharmacists are the drug therapy experts,” Krinsky says. “We need to share that knowledge, but caregivers also need to ask for it.”

Different pharmacies may not have a complete view of someone’s medication list, increasing the chance of duplication or dangerous interactions. For Daryl, that’s the next step. “I need to bring all of her medications under one umbrella so I can build a better relationship with a pharmacy team,” he admits. “It hasn’t happened yet, but it will.”

Paul Wynn, a veteran health care writer, has spent over a decade immersed in the caregiving community, both as a family caregiver and as a journalist covering caregiving issues for national publications.

AARP Membership

Join AARP for only $15 per year with automatic renewal. Get instant access to members-only products and hundreds of benefits, a free second membership, and a subscription to AARP The Magazine.

Join