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With Older Adults, The Work Continues
Working with older adults who struggle with substance abuse is extremely complex. Each individual has a different story to tell. Many older adults, who have used substances over the course of their life spans, often have a tremendous amount of shame, remorse, and sadness. Many of these individuals...
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Not-So-Grand Parenting
As a mid-70’s, semi-retired person, the problems I suffer with aging go hand in hand with the joys of being a grandparent – the latter compensating for the former, at least for a time. Recently, my wife and I as part of the Wellspring Institute conducted a series of counseling groups at a local...
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Substance Abuse and Misuse in Older Adults
Some years ago, we met with a group of mental health commissioners in upstate New York to raise awareness of the growing need to address problems of behavioral health among older adults as the baby boom becomes the elder boom. When we got to the topic of substance abuse, one of the commissioners...
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The Best We Can Do
This is a personal story told by a mental health professional. It is an easy story to tell because it is happening as I am telling it. It is the story of two women. These two women are 90 years old and have lived full and productive lives, lives consisting of a myriad of gifts, tragedy,...
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Psychological Considerations of Injury Management in Older Adults
Older adults suffer the same sorts of injuries as younger ones, however due to age-related processes are susceptible to more significant complications as a result of these injuries. These complications include the psychological, in addition to the physical. As mental health care practitioners,...
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Older Adults and Psychiatric Rehabilitation
In our youth-obsessed world, there is an unspoken assumption that when it comes to older adults and mental health, the recovery train has already left the station. After all, older people are stuck in their ways and are not able to make changes. They don’t have the same growth potential. They...
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Promoting Wellness and Preventing Substance Use Disorders in Older Adults
The Affordable Care Act challenges the nation to move upstream and create healthcare to focus on wellness and not on illness. Creating a lens on populations that looks at developing skills and behaviors that can prevent diseases and their health consequences will be the key to a healthier nation...
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Substance Abuse and Mental Health Issues Among Older Adults
Aging can lead to increased stress and depression, making seniors vulnerable to alcohol and substance use problems. The gradual inability to perform common daily tasks, loss of friends and increasing isolation can weigh heavily on once active, social adults. When coupled with declining health,...
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For Older Adults the Future is Now: Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation
While I have been caring for patients over 30 years, I have seen many advances and breakthroughs. Most of my work has been with depressive, bipolar and anxiety disorders. As a professor of psychiatry, I have taught many residents and medical students. I have had the occasion more than once to say,...
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The NYSPA Report: The Mentally Ill Elderly in Prison: A Behavioral Health Crisis
A recent editorial in the New York Times titled: “Nursing Homes Behind Bars” notes that “after declining for three years in a row, the nation’s stubbornly huge prison population has crept back up again” and “aging inmates make up the largest and fastest-growing segment of the American...
