Silent Epidemic: Older Americans With Addiction Forsaken As Opioid Crisis Grips Nation
The many ramifications of the opioid epidemic on older adults range from a lack of beds in treatment facilities to a generational reluctance to seek help.
As the nation’s opioid addiction epidemic expands, older adults in Maine and other states face mounting barriers to getting help for abuse of alcohol and opioid painkillers — not the least of which is finding they are squeezed out of scarce treatment facilities by younger people with prescription drug or heroin habits. (Vestal, 7/26)
“When Clifton Hilton decided to quit drinking this month, he called a residential drug and alcohol detoxification center in this coastal Maine city on a Friday afternoon and was told a bed was available for him. But by the time he arrived on a bus from Bangor the next morning, the bed had been taken.” Continue Reading
Excerpt from KHN Morning Briefing