Scottish Drugs Forum
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18 November 2009
SOME deaths treated as accidental drug overdoses could in fact be suicides among a ‘forgotten’ generation of older drug users, according to Scottish Drugs Forum.
New research to be unveiled by SDF at a major conference in Glasgow today reveals that suicidal feelings among people with heroin problems aged 35 and over could be much more common than currently understood.
The survey found that many want to give up their drug use but because they are failing to overcome their problem - or have experienced repeated relapses – they can lose the will to live.
The research, part of a wider European study into the current and future needs of older drug users, illustrates that many older users are ‘OAPs’ before their time – displaying patterns of social isolation and physical debilitation more frequently associated with people in their 60s, 70s or beyond.
The findings – taken from surveys of more than 70 drug users and professionals involved in their care - show that the more life-experienced group of problem drug users can be frequently overwhelmed by a combination of past experiences and futures barriers which impedes their ability to overcome their drug dependency.
More than half the older users interviewed by SDF - thirteen out of 23 - admitting they had had suicidal thoughts.
According to SDF Director David Liddell, this raises new questions about the true nature of drug-related deaths statistics in Scotland which in 2008 reached two record high levels - a total of 574 for all drug-related deaths, including the new high of 370 drug-related deaths among people known to have had a drug problem.
“We estimate there are about 15,000 older drug users in Scotland, making up about 27 percent of the 55,000 people with a drug problem in Scotland.
“Yet older drug users aged 35 and over made up 44 percent (or 162) of the 370 people whose deaths in 2008 were drugs-related and who were known to have a drug problem,” said David Liddell, Director of Scottish Drugs Forum.
affected
“We also know that long term trends are showing that older drugs users are becoming bigger in percentage terms among the numbers of problem drug users. The percentage of older drug users dying a drug-related death is also increasing steadily.
“What is becoming clear is that older drug users can be badly affected by a range of issues affecting their outlook on life and thus their will to live.
“They can have long-standing chronic health conditions – frequently resulting from Hepatitis C, respiratory and circulatory problems – and this will often be combined with the effects of social isolation, depression and anxiety as a result of family breakdown caused by their drug problem or a need to move away from drug-using circles.
“Longer exposure to harrowing life events can wear down older drug users’ abilities to cope with life’s difficulties, which in their case can often be very significant.
“Maturity in age also appears to bring greater awareness of the challenges users will face - not only trying to overcoming their drugs problem but in dealing with the often complex social and emotional issues which has been obscured by drugs use. This is especially true if they have relapsed – often more than once - into drug use after being drug-free.
bleak
“The overall impact is that although many older drug users want to give up because they are tired of the way they are living, they have become more sceptical or bleak about their chances of achieving a lasting recovery.
“Having seen it, done it, got the T-shirt” they feel far less optimistic that life can be better. And drug services are generally not geared up to cope with this particular aspect of drug treatment.
“The initial indications from our research show that these feelings could well move onto suicidal thoughts and action, and this is an area which requires further exploration.
“It has already been well documented that underlying social inequalities in terms of poverty, health, family life and opportunity are major contributory factors in the development of damaging drug use.
“The question is: having failed in our responsibilities to these people when they were younger, are we content for stand by while they prematurely end their lives in suffering and despair?”
sensitive
The research reports – which will be published by SDF in December 2009 - underline the need for drug treatment services to be more age-sensitive and accommodating with older drug users.
Examples include offering more treatment and rehabilitation projects for older people finding it difficult to control their drug use, providing key worker staff more empathetic to older life circumstances, providing drug group treatment for the over-30s only and offering more social contact opportunities for isolated users.
The SDF findings also flag up the need for agencies to plan and invest in care services similar to those for the elderly – such as supported accommodation and help with physical care – to a specially vulnerable group well ahead of the time when these services would normally be triggered.
The research also underlines the need for early intervention measures to prevent young users becoming older users – a challenge in the time of the recession and high rates of youth unemployment particularly in areas of existing deprivation.
The Senior Drug Users Project is being driven by a coalition of academics and non-government drugs organisations in Germany, Austria, Poland and Scotland, which is represented by Scottish Drugs Forum. The Scottish Government is funding SDF to carry out this research work.
The research project aims to provide guidelines - across Europe and for each of the four countries above - for drug users aged over 35, many of whom have chronic problems due to polydrug use, and poor mental and physical health
The 30-month-long study is being co-ordinated by Prof. Dr. Irmgard Vogt of the Institute of Addiction Research at the University of Applied Sciences in Frankfurt.