Find Counseling > Resources > Psychology Briefs > Influx of Boomer Addicts Enter Nursing Homes

Influx of Boomer Addicts Enter Nursing Homes

As the Woodstock generation ages, older adults struggling with chemical dependency in addition to medical issues are becoming more and more common in nursing homes, leaving many facilities struggling for resources even as state legislatures expand funding for treatment programs for chemically dependent seniors.

"I'm getting three or four referrals (from hospitals) a week," said Dean DeMulling, referral manager for the Evergreen Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Olympia. "These are for people whose principal diagnosis is chemical dependency but who also have a medical illness."
While some have never let go of the lifestyle they knew in the 60's and 70's, many were sober for years when injury or illness landed them on pain killers, triggering old addictions.

These new populations are at odds not only with the norms and mores of Depression-era elderly also living at nursing homes, but also financial resources and even staff.

"The patients, many of whom are younger than the traditional 65-and-older nursing home population, are allowed to leave the facility, as well as have guests. That means they're at risk to go out and drink or take drugs, and then come back and cause behavior problems with staff and other patients," DeMulling said.

"The chemically dependent boomers often have nowhere else to go because of their lack of sobriety, medical problems, financial issues or need to take pain medication."

Read more: Addicts flood nursing homes

SHARE: del.icio.us del.icio.us | Digg It! digg | Add to FURL FURL | Add to Netscape Netscape | Add to Reddit reddit | Stumble! Stumble! | Add to Yahoo! My Web BETA My Web

TrackBack

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.findcounseling.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/45

Post a comment

(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)

Category Tag Cloud



About

This page contains a single entry from Psychology Briefs, the FindCounseling.com Blog, posted on October 5, 2006 8:54 AM.

The previous post was Genetics May Help Fine-Tune Antidepressant Prescription.

The next post is Severity of Injury Determines Risk of PTSD in Wounded Soldiers.

Many more can be found on the main index page or by looking through the Psychology Research Archives.

Subscribe

Site Search

Therapist Finder





Advanced Search