Social and Community Context
106 - Social and Community Context: Opioids and Older Americans
Monday, July 16
2:45 PM - 4:00 PM
Location: Palladian Room-Lobby Level
Speaker(s)
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CG
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Moderator(s)
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Mary Kasunic, MS, CPM-Meeting the Mental Needs of Community Dwelling Older Adults Through Innovative Programming
Cory Goracke-Postle -Opioid Harm Reduction in Chronic Pain Management
Paul Targonski, MD, PhD, MPH-Influence of the Opioid Epidemic in Geographic Disparities of Life Expectancy among US Counties
Paul Targonski, MD, PhD, MPH-Influence of the Opioid Epidemic in Geographic Disparities of Life Expectancy among US Counties
Jennifer Robertson-Hill, MA, LMHC-The Prevention of Opioid Misuse in Women
More than 2.4 million Americans currently struggle with opioid addiction. In 2015, 33,000 people died from drug overdoses involving opioids, and in 2016 opioid-related deaths increased to 42,000. That is more than the number of deaths from AIDS in any year at the height of that crisis. In July of 2017 the U S Department of Health and Human Services Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) reported that opioid misuse among adults aged 50 or older in 2014 was higher than 2002 and by the end of the same year, the Center for Disease Control reported a second consecutive year of declining life expectancy. Opioid misuse impacts different populations in different ways.
The pathways that lead to the misuse of opioids (including prescription pain relievers, heroin, and other synthetics) are as varied as the social determinants surrounding misuse and the variety of evidence-based and patient-centered interventions employed by the federal government, state departments of health, health systems, hospitals, and community clinics to prevent and treat it. Likewise, opioid misuse among vibrant, very active adolescents and younger adults present a different set of considerations than misuse among older adults. Older adults not only lead more sedentary and less active lifestyles, managing multiple medications, addressing chronic pain, and even sharing medications and remedies with other residents in assisted living settings.
This panel will present ways in which the opioid crisis is impacting older adults, highlighting federal, state, and community-based responses to this crisis. We will explore the effectiveness of techniques and interventions such as Screening Brief Intervention and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT), motivational interviewing, harm reduction, and public awareness campaigns. The panel will also examine and advance research that suggests there is an association between opioid prescribing and substance use mortality, life expectancy, and geographic disparities in life expectancy.
Learning Objectives:
- Identify three factors that infludence how older women are effected by the opioid epidemic.
Identify at least three components of a multi-pronged approach to prevent continued increases in opioid misuse andoverdose related deaths.
- Identify two contexual factors that impact risk, screening, and treatment for older adults who misuse or abuse opioid medications.
Identify four harm reduction approaches specific to opioid use in chronic pain management indicators that ink a healthy community to healthy economy.
- Identify five environmental factors associated with life expectancy.
Describe the relationship of opioid prescribing rates and substance use mortality with life expectancy.
Understand the differences in short-acting and extended-release opioid prescribing and misuse.