1 October 2007

WOERDEN – A growing number of people aged 55 and over are turning to addiction treatment centres for help with an alcohol problem. Ten years ago 13 percent of the alcohol addition patients were over 55, that number is now 20 percent.

There was a 10-percent increase last year in the number of people between the ages of 60 and 65 seeking help for a drinking problem, according to the health institute NIGZ and GGZ Nederland, NIGZ reported Monday.

Attention recently has focused primarily on teen drinking. What the elderly and teenagers have in common is free time and money, the NIGZ and GGZ Nederland report.

A surprisingly high number of women are among those seeking help: almost one in three of the people 55 and over seeking help is female, among younger women that number is almost one in four. NIGZ has also noticed that the elderly (75 percent) are more likely to drink on a daily basis than young people (68 percent). Those 55 and over also report for addiction treatment later than younger people.

NIGZ and GGZ Nederland are urging that care be easier to access, via self help programmes on the internet for instance. Older people have more of a need for that, the treatment centres report from experience.

[Copyright Expatica News + ANP 2007]

Subject: Dutch news