Senior Alert: Senior Drug Abuse On The Rise

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Senior Alert: Senior Drug Abuse On The RiseSenior 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.

  1. 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.

So remember to like, share, tweet, pin stumble, digg this post. <3

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Senior Health – How To Help Seniors Cope

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Senior Health - How To help Seniors CopeBaby 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.

Most folks are unaware of  the full range of care available for seniors and when someone is thrown into the situation of needing to help a senior loved one cope with illness, limited mobility, poor vision, poor balance, etc it is 99.9% of the time very difficult and frustrating attempting to navigate the continuum of care and the waters  of how to help seniors cope with all the different options, not to mention all the paperwork including rules and regulations.

An expert in senior care, Mr. Steve Andriko wrote a fairly comprehensive two part article on the subject of helping seniors cope for Holistic Health Daily and we placed it under the Senior Services tab above. Here is a small excerpt…

Senior Health – How To Help Seniors Cope

Those who find themselves in the “sandwich generation” are struggling with commitment to both younger and older family members who need their attention. This is your Silver Senior Alert about care for the elderly. Often the more significant challenge presents itself when senior family members have needs. While the catalyst to act on behalf of our younger loved ones appears rather obvious the same understanding of the time to intervene in senior affairs can be perplexing.

  • How does one step up to parents to tell them that they need care?
  • What are the care options? Are there any resources to help in this process?
  • Finally, and perhaps the cause of the greatest angst, how are we going to pay for whatever care may be appropriate?

When to take action to acquire care for the benefit of a senior loved one such as a parent, grandparent, or maybe even a spouse can be quite difficult to discern. The most obvious situation has been observed by most of you on the freeway. If you are driving by one of the electronic billboards citing “authorities searching for a missing elderly person” and that person is your loved one, it is definitely time to step up and get some assistance.

Click here to read more about how to help seniors cope.

Senior Health is going to be a big challenge as we get older and doing all that is possible to help seniors age in place with dignity is one of the major concerns of those in the healthcare industry so would you be so kind as to share this information with as many people as you possibly can. It would truly be appreciated.

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