report

Key points

“The only age group [in the UK] where drinking has increased is among 65-74 year-olds. So our consideration, and prevention of problem drinking has to turn to the retired, or those who’ll approach it over the coming years.”—Baroness Dianne Hayter
Despite it being a growing concern there are significant barriers for older people when trying to access alcohol services, while statistics and research often misses them out
Barriers to services include:
– Arbitrary age limits which prevent older adults accessing alcohol rehabs, younger clients being prioritised over older adults for alcohol treatment, older adults not being offered alcohol treatment because of their age
– Older adults being excluded without good reason from studies on alcohol
– Alcohol services unable or unwilling to carry out home visits for older adults unable to attend the service and alcohol service premises or rooms within the premises inaccessible to older adults with limited mobility
Age discrimination in alcohol services is likely to be the result of pervasive misconceptions, for example the false belief that older people are incapable of change or alcohol problems predominantly affect young people

Recommendations include

Consulting with older adults with ‘lived experience’, their families and carers, via relevant advocacy groups
Informing alcohol services of their legal obligation to provide equitable care and take action if services are consistently discriminating against older adults
Ensuring national prevalence studies which collect data on alcohol include older adults and report key data by multiple categories, for example young old (65-74 years) middle old (75-84 years) and old old (85 years and over)
Removing arbitrary age limits for alcohol services. Specialist alcohol services for young or old people who have specific age-related needs are acceptable because they are considered to be fair and reasonable
Ensuring that older adults are included in clinical trials and research studies unless there is good justification for not doing so in which case the justification should be stated in all study outputs
Research funders should consider issuing themed calls for research into alcohol problems in older adults
“At a personal level, this may mean replacing the bottle of booze as a Christmas present to our older friends and relatives”—Baroness Hayter