Substance Abuse Among Older Adults (Doc)

Running head: SUBSTANCE ADDICTION AND TREATMENT FOR ELDERS
Substance addiction and treatment for elders
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1SUBSTANCE ADDICTION AND TREATMENT FOR ELDERS
Generally, people think that only young adults and teens are affected by drug and
alcohol abuse, however, it is not true as many elders are also suffering from the problems
related to drugs and alcohol. Irrespective of countries, the numbers of older adults with the
problem of substance abuse are getting higher day after day.
The elder adults may be addicted to illicit drugs or may use the prescribed medicine in
a wrong way such as consuming it after mixing it with alcohol (Herie et al, 2013). To counsel
the addicted elders, the counselor has to first identify the exact problem to bring the
individual to normal life. The counselor uses the few standardized tools available to screen
the problems related to misusing of prescribed medicine.
The second step of screening the patient is to do a proper assessment to determine the
steps the counselor is going to take to properly treat the patient. While doing the assessment
for older adults, the counselor has to consider the following criteria- mobility, diet, losses,
mental health, capacity, physical health, social support, alcohol, literacy, speech, culture and
any kind of abuse to make the whole process of counseling as appropriate as possible (Herie
et al, 2013).
The third step the counselor has to take is the treatment. The process of treatment is
the same for the older adults and the younger people (Kuerbis et al., 2014). The treatments
for substance abuse include medicines, counseling, and detoxification. In the case of
medicine abuse, the doctor or the counselor can start their treatment by letting the patient
know about the bad effect of the medicine and by organizing the intake of all the medicines.
The doctor or the counselor also has to determine the severity of the problem by classifying
them into some distinct groups. Some of the late onset patients can also show the withdrawal

2SUBSTANCE ADDICTION AND TREATMENT FOR ELDERS
symptoms during the treatment. The doctor has to treat the patients with the withdrawal
symptoms accordingly.
The treatment of the problem for the people of different stages of addiction is
different. The counselor has to consider all these criteria while treating them. The counselor
should consider the age and the special needs of the patient during the treatment.

3SUBSTANCE ADDICTION AND TREATMENT FOR ELDERS
References:
Herie, M., Skinner, W. J. W., & Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.
(2013). Fundamentals of addiction: A practical guide for counselors (4th edition).
p=3431464, 592-605
Kuerbis, A., Sacco, P., Blazer, D. G., & Moore, A. A. (2014). Substance abuse among older
adults. Clinics in geriatric medicine, 30(3), 629.