Aging and Addiction: A Disease With Many Faces

Continuing Education Units Webinar

Addiction is a complex disease that presents many barriers to treatment. The complexities and barriers increase within older populations. Appropriately intervening, assessing and treating addiction in older adults requires a specific skill set that most people in helping professions do not possess. Yet, they will be faced with a growing number of cases requiring these services.

This presentation will help attendees expand their understanding of the scope of the problem of addiction in older adults and give them a broader understanding of what is required when assessing addiction in older adults. It will explain what steps the health care team can take and the importance of including family whenever possible. Attendees will learn how to think about what creates lasting change and what doesn’t. They will also receive sharable, no-cost resources that use technology to provide action-based information to family members who are key partners in helping older loved ones get appropriate treatment and support. Hidden ageism, a barrier to helping older adults, will also be challenged by examining myths.

Participants in this webinar will:

• Articulate challenges addiction presents to professionals working with older adults and analyze some limiting factors dictated by their particular profession.
• Discuss a wider range of signs and symptoms of addiction in older adults and key factors in assessing the scope of the addiction.
• Explain what creates lasting behavior change and what doesn’t and the importance of distinguishing the difference between behaviors and outcomes.
• Examine how hidden ageism can influence how families and professionals address an older adult’s addiction and challenge these belief systems.
• Demonstrate how, in less than a minute, any professional can provide family members a thorough, action-based information source using a smartphone, providing them with the tools they need—at no cost—to guide them through the process of helping their older loved one before, during and after treatment.

Register

About the Presenter:

Debra Jay is co-founder of a private practice providing clinical intervention services nationally and is founder of Structured Family Recovery®. She designed the highly acclaimed Love First Clinical Intervention Training Program first hosted annually by the Betty Ford Center and now at The Retreat in Minnesota.

Debra previously worked as an addictions counselor for the Hazelden Foundation (Hanley-Hazelden), working inpatient treatment and as first coordinator of older adult treatment programming. She also served as facilitator for the Hazelden Family Program.

Debra has served as trustee on several boards including Brighton Center for Recovery, the Care Continuum Board for Ascension St. John Medical Center, and the Dawn Farm Board of Trustees.

She is founder and designer of GetHelpGiveHelp.info, a noncommercial, advocacy website designed to help families access in-depth, action-based, free information for helping a loved one with addiction. She is also founder of The Best Minds Podcast, creating a space for families and the best minds in the addiction treatment field to come together.

Debra regularly appeared on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” for three seasons as an addictions expert. She has also been on “The Dr. Oz Show.” She has been writing a newspaper column on issues related to addiction and the family since 1996.

Debra’s latest books are “It Takes a Family: Creating Lasting Sobriety, Togetherness, and Happiness” (second edition, 2021) and “Love First: A Family’s Guide to Intervention” (third edition, 2021), both published by Hazelden. She is also author of “No More Letting Go: The Spirituality of Taking Action Against Alcoholism and Drug Addiction” (2006), published by Bantam. She co-authored the book “Aging and Addiction: Helping Older Adults Overcome Alcohol or Medication Dependence” (2002), published by Hazelden.

** This webinar is designed for professionals and family caregivers. Eligible professionals can claim ONE FREE CE credit within 60 days of the live webinar by attending the live event or watching the recorded program. Your credit will be emailed within 30 days of survey submission.