Foreward to Aging and Addiction
by Barry McCaffrey

This book will help save lives. It's that simple. Aging and Addiction – intelligent, readable, and well-research – is above all an immensely compassionate book offering hope and direction to families and readers with concerns for an older adult who may be abusing alcohol or medications.

Older American adults who abuse or are addicted to alcohol or prescriptions are not failures. Most have raised wonderful families, retired from successful careers and community activism, led energetic lives, and perhaps are now enjoying grandchildren. They are suffering a disease, and like any other physical setback they can be helped and recover, though many will go without help from even their doctors. "The lack of good information caused wrong thinking," says Colleran and Jay, "and wrong thinking blocked their ability to take the right action."

Substance abuse among older adults is often ignored or out rightly denied by family members, the medical profession, and health care workers. Even managed care has not adequately provided for older adults with addiction.  No one wants to believe that Grandma or Grandpa, Mom or Dad, Aunt Emily or Uncle Jim are abusing prescription medications or alcohol. If abuse or addiction is suspected, a family member might deny the problem by protesting, "He has only a few years left. Let him enjoy himself. He isn't hurting anyone." Colleran and Jay make clear these older adults aren't enjoying their 'few years left' and are hurting themselves and those who love them. "Alcohol and other drug addictions close the door to this phase of life," Colleran and Jay remind us. Addiction keeps older adults from "revaluating life to create deeper meaning, experiencing the freedom and comfort of who (they) are, achieving personal integrity, developing a more encompassing view of life itself, giving back to the community and celebrating family and friends."

Those who can help older addicted adults often are absent, or they turn away. Not out of cruelty, but out of ignorance and denial.  Aging and Addiction rallies everyone – family members, medical and health care professionals – to come to the aid of these men and women who spent most of their earlier years aiding us. First, we need to educate ourselves about older adult addiction and learn how to intervene. Aging and Addiction is a good place to begin our education. It offers up-to-date and reliable research, vital medical information, compelling testimonies, and direction from authors with expertise in their fields. Carol Colleran, director and pioneer of the older adult treatment at Hanley-Hazelden in West Palm Beach, Florida, and Debra Jay, interventionist and co-author of Love First: A New Approach to Intervention for Alcoholism & Drug Addiction, encourage family members, people in health care, even managed care industry to openly and diligently redress the familial and social problem of older adult addiction before it worsens as more baby-boomers become senior citizens. No matter what the medical issue, older adults deserve every opportunity as citizens to live their lives in the best of health and happiness.

As past director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy under President Clinton, I am sadly aware of the toll that addiction takes not only on the young, but on older adults as well. The disease of addiction excludes no one. The sooner we learn this, the sooner we can help all people, regardless of their age. It's not my problem, one might think. But it is. "Aging parents, grandparents, and friends have a valuable and irreplaceable role to play in our lives, the lives of our children, and in our communities. When addiction claims them, everybody loses," Colleran and Jay write. A few statistics might help illustrate how alcohol and medication dependence affects society.

In 1998, health care costs of substance abuse in older adults reached $30 billion. This cost is expected to rise to an estimated $100 billion by the year 2018. Currently, over 3 million older adults in United States suffer from alcohol or medication dependency. Older adults who are not treated stand a very poor chance of living alone into old age. Most will need some type of assisted living, which will be costly for not only families but every health insurance holder since medical costs are spread out among insurers. When older adults are treated early, however, most will remain self-sufficient much longer, enjoying their lives, families, and communities.

Continue to PART 2 of Barry McCaffrey's Introduction (click here)