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The Aging Addict: When the Golden Years are tarnished
Ron Freeman was on
the launch team for Apollo 11, the first lunar landing mission. After
working at NASA, he headed a division at United Technologies that made
secret laser optics for the Star Wars defense system. Then United
Technologies downsized. Freeman found himself out of a job. He was 60 and
no one would hire him. ''I was depressed.
I felt useless to the point where suicide was an option,'' he says. Ron Freeman,
rocket scientist, became Ron Freeman, alcoholic. He joined a
growing number of older Americans for whom alcohol is a problem. From the
early 1980s until 1998, the number of older Americans with addiction
problems soared from about 3 million to 8 million, says Carol Colleran,
director of older adult services for Hanley-Hazelden, a treatment center
for chemical dependency in OLDEST
POPULATION But there are few
programs in the state specifically for older adults with addictions. ''The size of the
problem is humongous,'' says Larry Dupree, chair of the Department of
Aging and Mental Health at the Florida Mental Health Institute, part of
the The private
Hanley-Hazelden and the publicly funded Broward County Elderly &
Veterans Services, which serves only Broward residents, work with older
addicts, as does Jewish Community Services in Miami-Dade and Ten or 15 years
ago, people didn't talk about older addicts, said Judith Lieber, vice
president of the behavioral health division of Jewish Community Services
in Miami-Dade. ``I see the numbers holding steady, but we are becoming
more aware.'' Many older addicts
have been drinking for years. Others, ''late-onset'' addicts, use alcohol
and/or sedatives to relieve pain, grief or depression. For many who begin
to drink late in life, ''the biggest problem is that they have lost a
sense of purpose. They don't feel needed anymore,'' Colleran says. `THE KISS OF
DEATH' Mae, who asked
that her last name not be used, was 72 when she blacked out for two days
on the living room floor in her She moved to The day she had a
drink before golf and quit after nine holes to drink again was ''the last
day.'' When she woke up and called 911, medics wouldn't take her. She
called her son, a doctor, who got her into Hanley-Hazelden. ''I decided my way
didn't work so well, and maybe I ought to listen to what I was being told
to do,'' she says. Many older adults
live alone, so family members may not realize they are abusing alcohol or
prescription drugs. Even when they become aware, they often don't know
what to do. Cathy Thomas, Ron
Freeman's wife of 22 years, is a physician, but she didn't try to force
her husband into treatment or threaten to leave. ''I really love
Ronnie and I didn't want to leave him when he needed somebody,'' Thomson
says. ''She figured . .
. if it was going to be done, I had to do it,'' Freeman says. ``She let me
play out my cards and hit bottom.'' But Colleran says,
``You can't wait for [most elders] to hit bottom because at this age
bottom can be dead.'' Colleran pioneered
older adult treatment at Hanley. ''When I was
clinical director, I realized we were not treating older adults as we
should. We would plunk them down with 25-year-old crack addicts,'' says
Colleran. Men and women 55
and older have different issues. They may have speech and hearing
impairments, require special diets, need grief counseling. But older adults
also respond better to treatment, she says. At Hanley-Hazelden,
where the fee is $21,000 to $26,000 for a 28-day stay, treatment begins
with 24 hours in detox, then goes on to individual and group therapy,
spiritual counseling, help with physical ailments and relapse prevention. The program,
Colleran says, is achieving an 85 percent to 86 percent success rate,
measured by addicts staying alcohol- or drug-free a year after treatment. Anyone can ask for
help, regardless of income, and payment is made on a sliding scale or is
free if clients cannot afford it. Medicaid, the government program for the
indigent, will pay for some costs, but Medicare, which serves people 65
and older, pays only for detox in a hospital setting, said a spokesperson
at the local Medicare carrier, First Coast Service Options. HOUSE CALLS In Broward,
counselors go to the homes of patients for counseling. Some patients may
receive 28 days of detox and residential treatment at the Ferrante and
Hanley-Hazelden also take prevention programs to senior centers,
retirement communities and churches, discussing, among other topics, how
changing metabolism makes older people vulnerable to the effects of drugs
and alcohol. Today, Ron
Freeman, with a master's degree in counseling for drug addiction,
volunteers to talk with patients at Hanley-Hazelden. Mae, nearly 80,
attends AA meetings twice weekly. Every 10 days or so she drives to
Hanley's ''I don't take my
sobriety lightly,'' she says. ``The first thing I think about when I get
up in the morning is I can remember what I did the night before.''
Copyright
© 2002 Global Action on Aging |
