Although, it may not be easy recognizing or diagnosing substance abuse among the older ones due to a lot of reasons such as isolation or even mistaking substance abuse problem as a condition of ageism. People hesitate to deprive elderly individuals or patient from substances from the fear of causing harm or negatively causing detriment to their quality of life. As people become old, psychological changes occur in the body making individuals to become easily susceptible and less lenient with the effects of drugs.
The first stage in the treatment process of substance abuse among the older ones is identifying or recognizing the substance abused by the older individual if it is drugs or alcohol. Often times, an intervention may involve the need of a medical personnel. This is important in order to enable the patient see the need for, and to freely undergo a treatment process. One way by this can be done is to painstakingly plan meetings with the loved ones of such affected older patient. Also, counselling and enlightenment can help the older individual gain the necessary inspiration to seek medical intervention.
Age specific addiction treatment programs exist which provides facilities to offer care options to people of the same age bracket. Younger people for example, have specific issues and solution plans, like the older ones too. It is effective to group people of the same age bracket together in order to provide treatment programs for different age-groups.
There are medical interventions to safely remove substance from the body systems of individuals who are dependent on them. There is an important need for the medical personnel to know all other medications used by the older patient in order to avoid any form of negative interactions which may dangerously lead to adverse after effect which can even include the loss of life. Therefore, there is an immense need for proper evaluation of the medical conditions faced by the patient before administering medications.
In addition, support groups can play a pivotal role in a substance abuse treatment program and they can be most helpful especially after the patient has undergone an intensive treatment plan. There is a tendency for an older patient to return to a substance abuse behavior after treatment and sometimes there is a fatal risk of overdose when this occurs. Support groups generates programs and meetings that prevent cases of returning to the substance abuse behaviors.