Schultz Susan K, Arndt Stephan, Liesveld Jill
Department of Psychiatry, College of Medicine, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA.
Int J Geriatr Psychiatry. 2003 Sep;18(9):839-43. doi: 10.1002/gps.994.
Given the growth of our aging population, developing strategies for managing late-life alcoholism is increasingly important.
We compared substance abuse treatment facilities with and without services designed for older adults and explored the location of these services relative to the regional distribution of older adults across the United States.
A public use dataset from a national survey of facilities offering substance abuse treatment was used to address this issue. This survey included all identified substance abuse/dependence treatment facilities in the US and surveyed the facilities' treatment services, services for special groups, number of clients admitted, type of ownership (e.g. public, private for profit), and whether or not the facility was associated with a hospital, as well as questions about licensure and income sources.
Of the 13 749 responding facilities, relatively few programs (17.7%) were specifically designed for older adults (i.e. over age 65). Facilities with such programs tended to be associated with hospitals, particularly those with a psychiatric inpatient service. Importantly, the number of facilities with special programs for older adults did not correlate with size of the older population in each state.
Despite an increasing need for older adult substance abuse services, there are relatively few programs available designed for this age group. The setting where patients with substance abuse are identified (e.g. in a hospital) may partially explain the pattern of locations of age-specific programs.
鉴于我国老年人口的增长，制定管理老年酗酒问题的策略变得越发重要。
我们比较了有无针对老年人服务的药物滥用治疗机构，并探究了这些服务相对于美国老年人区域分布的位置。
使用一项针对提供药物滥用治疗的机构进行全国性调查的公开可用数据集来解决此问题。该调查涵盖了美国所有已确定的药物滥用/依赖治疗机构，并调查了这些机构的治疗服务、特殊群体服务、收治患者数量、所有权类型（例如公立、营利性私立），以及该机构是否与医院相关联，还包括有关执照和收入来源的问题。
在13749家回复的机构中，专门为老年人（即65岁以上）设计的项目相对较少（17.7%）。设有此类项目的机构往往与医院相关联，尤其是那些设有精神科住院服务的医院。重要的是，设有针对老年人特殊项目的机构数量与每个州老年人口的规模并无关联。
尽管对老年人药物滥用服务的需求日益增加，但为该年龄组设计的项目相对较少。确定药物滥用患者的场所（例如医院）可能部分解释了特定年龄项目的分布模式。
