There was a time when I went to administer the night medication to customer X and realised that he was heavily under the influence of alcohol. Me and my colleagues had noticed that he had been consuming brandy all day. In addition staff had been seen purchasing 2 bottles of brandy by one of my colleagues.

Customer X was taking the following medication which was recorded in the MAR chart:Citalopram 20mg tablets – one tablet daily (morning) Citalopram 10mg tablets – one tablet daily (morning)Chlorpromazine 50mg tablets – one tablet 3 times daily (morning, midday, night) Chlorpromazine 100mg tablets – one tablet 3 times daily (morning, midday, night)Valproate Semi sodium 500mg tablets – one tablet 3 times daily (morning, midday, night)Sodium Chloride MR 600mg tablets – 2 tablets 4 times daily (morning, midday, teatime, night)Promethazine HCI 25mg tablets – one tablet daily (night)Procyclidine 5mg tablets – one tablet daily (morning)Lorazepam 1mg tablets – one twice daily (morning, night)Omeprazole 10mg capsules – one capsule daily.Because it was out of hours, I contacted the crisis team to inform them of the situation and to seek advice. I was advised not to give any medication to Customer X as mixing it with alcohol could have an adverse reaction and be life threatening. I then contacted the on-call manager for my workplace to inform of the occurrence.I tried to customer X the reason why he would not be given his medication but he seemed to have very reduced concentration due to being intoxicated with alcohol. I waited for the next day when he was sober and informed him of all the actions taken the night before regarding his medication.

I also gave him information and advice about the risks of mixing any kind of medication with alcohol and offered support and information about alcohol support services.