The company does not offer tours of dispensaries, but travels to senior living communities to provide educational information. Taking too many edibles can cause dizziness, confusion, changes in heart rate and blood pressure, panic attacks, anxiety, nausea, vomiting, and can even land some people in the emergency room. The company Trulieve, which has the largest retail footprint for cannabis products in the United States and https://ecosoberhouse.com/article/abuse-in-older-adults-a-growing-threat/ a 750,000-square-foot cannabis cultivation facility in north Florida, is also connecting with older people through educational sessions at senior living communities. Earlier this year, Mr. Hickerson was bused to an event organized by Glass House, one of the biggest cannabis brands in the country, along with about 50 other people from his retirement community who were offered cannabis products at a substantial discount.

• In fact, the number of older adults dying from alcohol-related causes rose by 18.2 percent between 2019 and 2020.
• In addition, retired people don’t have to worry about job performance and naturally have more free time to either use drugs or hide their use.
• Older adults are more likely than individuals in younger age groups to experience long‐term health conditions and to take multiple prescription medications, which may further complicate the negative effects of substance use (Mattson, Lipari, Hays, & Horn, 2017).
• The purposes of this paper are (a) to critically analyse the social context of substance use among older adults and (b) to offer strategies for nurses and other health care providers to optimally support the health of older adults experiencing problematic substance use issues.
• Physiological changes that occur with aging leave older adults more vulnerable to the ill effects of alcohol and drugs, as metabolism and excretion of substances slow down, increasing the risk of toxicity.

Health care professionals need to continue to do as thorough of assessments as possible and enlist the help of formal measures, Web-based assessment, and build in the questions outlined earlier as routine. As the baby boom generation ages, the health care system will be challenged to provide culturally competent services to this group, as they are a unique generation of older adults. Knowledge about older-adult substance use and the issues that contribute to late onset or maintained addiction in late life will need to be continually updated as we learn how and why this generation of adults uses substances. Furthermore, the advancement and development of interventions that may be more useful for, effective for, and desired by this incoming generation of older adults than previous generation, such as mobile interventions, will be crucial to alleviating the projected pressures on the health care system. Additionally, an equity lens can help health care providers understand that substance use and the harms of use are increased by social conditions such as abuse, trauma, grief, loss, and social determinants of health such as income and social environments (Browne et al., 2018; EQUIP Health Care, 2017).

Conditions

This type of treatment offers a safe, structured environment with constant access to medical professionals, counselors, and other mental health professionals with expertise in treating older adults suffering from addiction. One of the primary https://ecosoberhouse.com/ reasons older people struggle with substance use disorders is a decrease in family support and social interaction as they age. Unfortunately, social isolation is common among older adults as family members and friends move away or pass away.

The combined 2007 and 2014 past year use data for this report are based on information obtained from 23,300 adults aged 65 or older. For example, some people with alcohol use disorders may occasionally binge drink, while others drink daily. Substance use disorders are characterized by intense, uncontrollable cravings for drugs and compulsive drug-seeking behaviors – even in the face of devastating consequences.

Are older adults impacted differently by alcohol and drugs?

These harms may be exacerbated for older adults who are facing multiple transitions as they age; older adults are often neglected, might face elder abuse, experience additional grief and loss as loved ones pass away, and might be subject to changes in financial and social contexts (Kuerbis et al., 2014). Understanding how multiple contextual challenges can influence substance use will also help health care providers use potentially successful interventions to address substance use (Varcoe et al., 2018). To promote ethical and optimal health care for older populations, factors such as social determinants, risk behaviours and environments, and health and social care aspects need to be addressed in a comprehensive and contextual assessment of substance use. Given the intersectoral nature of social disadvantages, and to promote social justice and equity, substance use needs to be viewed as a consequence of other factors. Nurses and other health care providers need to remind themselves that substance use can vary depending on social, historical, and economic contexts, and that the consequences of substance use are often shaped by social inequities based on gender, age, and/or income (Varcoe et al., 2018).