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Plight of the pensioners who are driven to drink in retirement
Helen regularly drinks a bottle of vodka in an evening. Sometimes she'll also have a couple of glasses of wine a night. Most nights she doesn't remember going to bed. She's also 75-years-old and a retired magistrate.
In recent years, binge drinking has been seen as a curse of the young generation. Town centres have apparently become plagued by groups of teenagers blitzed on heavy duty alcopops. However, if new research is to be believed, the quiet streets of suburbia are equally troubled.
Yesterday, a report by charity Foundation66 claimed increasing numbers of over-60s find retirement drives them to drink. Many, like Helen, who started drinking heavily after she gave up work to look after her disabled husband, blame the pressure of home life. Without the distraction of work and without colleagues to share problems, alcohol becomes a convenient crutch. Others said they drank to ease depression or to cope with bereavement, and, with most doing it behind closed doors, it's a problem which has until now remained hidden.
A separate poll of more than 2,000 UK adults, which found that one in 10 is concerned about the amount of drunk by a friend or family member aged over 60, has further prompted fears of an epidemic of late-onset alcohol misuse.
"The older people we see with drink problems come from all walks of life," says Sally Scriminger, chief executive of Foundation66. "Many are retired professionals who never had issues with alcohol in the past. They don't even have to leave home to buy alcohol – supermarket delivery services will bring it straight to their door.
"Because they don't fit the stereotypes people hold about alcohol misuse and because they keep their drinking habits hidden, there just aren't enough services out there to offer them the help they need.
"A huge number of people are clearly worried about their parents' or grandparents' drinking habits. Our own projects have scratched the surface of a huge unmet need among older people and the problem will only get worse.
"Without intervention, this will become a major issue costing the NHS and our society a great deal."
Last year the charity piloted a project to provide help to older drinkers in one London borough. Demand was so great that it is now being rolled out to a neighbouring borough, but in many areas there is little help for those whose drinking spirals out of control.
Today the RAC published a report which seemed to back up the findings of the Foundation66 report. While drink driving is widely thought to have become a social taboo, almost a third of 45 to 64-year-olds questioned confessed to getting behind the wheel while potentially over the limit – far more than the number of 17 to 24-year-olds who admitted to drink-driving.
While millions have been spent on advertising campaigns targeted at young drinkers, the risks are heightened for the over-60s. Binge drinking can lead to high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes and falls. Last year, pensioners accounted for 357,300 alcohol-related admissions in England – a 75 per cent rise in five years.
"In moderation, alcohol consumption can contribute to older people's quality of life, however it can also have a significant impact on their health," says Don Shenker, chief executive of the charity Alcohol Concern. "Britain is the only country in Europe where a significant number of over-55s drink more than six units a day. If the high number of older drinkers seems shocking, it's because they are a group who hide their problems in the home. Older people tend not to have regular employment, they have reduced social interaction and the friends and family that they do see often ignore or fail to identify the problems.
"Unfortunately, the figures released this week are backed up by an increasing number of alcohol-related hospital admissions in older people in recent years.
"Currently, some treatment services will not admit over 65s and it can be difficult for older people to access appropriate support. The Government needs to develop a strategy for reducing alcohol harm among older people, to identify those at risk and provide specialist treatment."
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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