Boomers Will Place Increased Demands on Substance Abuse Treatment Systems
A statistic well known to counselors is that the proportion of the U.S. population aged 50 or older is increasing as the large numbers in the “baby boom” cohort (persons born between 1946 and 1964) reach age 50. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMSHA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services expects this to place increasing demands on the substance abuse treatment system in the next two decades.
Estimates suggest that the number of substance-dependent and abusing adults aged 50 or older will climb from approximately 1.7 million in 2001 to 4.4 million by 2020.This pattern of growth is echoed in admissions to substance abuse treatment, where adult admissions aged 50 or older increased from 143,900 to 184,400 (from 8 to 10 percent of all admissions) between 2001 and 2005. Consequently, counseling services and related treatment for substance abuse may soon need to adapt to address the needs of this growing population.
The SAMHSA findings can be found at: http://oas.samhsa.gov/2k7/older/older.htm