ALCOHOL'S HIDDEN RISKS FOR ELDERS:
HOW PROFESSIONALS CAN HELP

--Oh, let her drink, she has no other pleasures left in life.

--None of my older clients drink. Seniors just don't drink.

--It's none of my business what my neighbor, Ned, drinks. He isn't hurting anyone.

"These stereotypic views of drinking in older adulthood can get in the way of providing needed help and assistance from healthcare providers, family members and friends," according to Frederick C. Blow, the research scientist at the University of Michigan's Alcohol Research Center who chaired the federal Public Health Service's consensus panel that produced the widely praised 1998 treatment manual Substance Abuse in Older Adults.

According to the Alcohol Alert bulletin on "Alcohol and Aging" (no. 40, April 1998), published by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), "Surveys indicate that 6%­11% of elderly patients admitted to hospitals exhibit symptoms of alcoholism, as do 20% of the elderly patients in psychiatric wards, and 14% of the elderly patients in emergency rooms. In acute care hospitals, rates of alcohol-related admissions for the elderly are similar to those for heart attacks (i.e., myocardial infarction). Yet hospital staff are significantly less likely to recognize alcoholism in an older patient than in a younger patient."

The emergence of this hidden health risk for elders in recent years has prompted Aging Today to devote this "In Focus" section to alcoholism and excessive alcohol use among older adults, especially those in community or residential settings where the problem often goes unaddressed. As NIAAA director Enoch Gordis has stressed, "It is a mistaken belief that older persons have little to gain from alcoholism treatment."

--Paul Kleyman, Editor
Aging Today

 

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American Society on Aging
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info@asaging.org