Senior Alert: Senior Drug Abuse On The Rise… When Nancy Reagan started the “Just Say No” campaign in the war on drugs I suspect she never thought in her wildest dreams it was something seniors would need to pay attention too.
The Wall Street Journal in their Health Blog reports
Senior Alert: Senior Drug Abuse On The Rise
Up to a fifth of Americans over 65 years old have mental-health or substance-abuse conditions, and the health-care system isn’t set up to adequately address their concerns, according to a report released today by the Institute of Medicine, an independent government-advisory group.
- Substance abuse appears to be a growing problem among Baby Boomers, and there’s no reason to believe the trend will stop, says Dan Blazer, head of the IOM committee in charge of the report. Between 2002 and 2007, the percentage of people aged 50 to 59 nearly doubled to 9.4%, and non-medical use of prescription drugs also increased substantially to 4% from 2.2%.
Another factor in the looming increase in demand on the mental health-care system is simply a larger number of aging Americans.
“The burden of mental health and substance use is large and will get larger,” Blazer tells the Health Blog.
Click here to read more about the growing senior drug abuse problem
The challenge for seniors is as they age often mental faculties diminish and dementia sets in. So often they are not aware of the mental and physical changes that are happening to them.
There is hope as some Holistic Health practitioners are suggesting alternatives like teaching seniors meditation which slows down the onset of dementia and Alzheimer’s. Some have gone so far as to suggest meditation can eliminate dementia. Whether this is true or not it can be a big help with senior drug abuse on the rise.
With the challenges that seniors face “Just Say No” could work if they have the mental capacity to remember what’s going on in the first place.
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Baby boomers are getting older so learning how to help seniors cope is something both parents and children can benefit from. The senior population is growing extremely fast and will continue to rise for the next 10 years as boomers age.Normally most people when they think of illness and taking care of grandma or paw paw all that comes to mind is a doctor, the hospital and the nursing home.