Call for Best practices on preventing the harmful use of alcohol in older people
The Vintage Project is looking to collect best practices on preventing the harmful use of alcohol. If you or anyone you know would like to help us by filling out and submitting the questionnaire at the bottom of the article, it would be highly appreciated.
The Vintage project http://www.epicentro.iss.it/vintage/ is an European Commission funded project lead by the Istituto Superiori di Sanità from Italy and aimed at:
* Providing the evidence base and collecting best practices to prevent the harmful use of alcohol amongst older people including the transition from work to retirement.
* Actively sharing best practice to upwardly harmonize policies and programmes to invest in older people's health and well-being.
* Undertaking systematic reviews and systematically collecting examples of best practice on the harm done by alcohol to the health and well-being of older people and on the effective policies and programmes to reduce such harm.
As you know, the senior European population has grown more than twice as fast as the overall population since the early 1980s. With this demographic shift, there has been a growing awareness of the importance of older adults' needs in many areas, but drinking and related alcohol problems is still a "hidden" issue, is often underdetected, neglected and goes unaddressed in many countries.
However, alcohol related problems can begin later in life and due to higher vulnerability, drinking amongst the elderly can increase susceptibility to falls and other injuries. It can also reduce the effectiveness of prescribed medication and cause a range of physical, mental and social difficulties resulting in increased frequenting of services and costs.
There is an urgent need to develop practices of effective policies and programmes to reduce the harmful use of alcohol by older people from all countries of Europe and to assess the impact of general policies among older people. There is also the need to develop prevention programs and treatment services sensitive to older people's needs and to train professionals to improve their understanding of drinking amongst older people and the provision of actions and information tailored to their needs.
The Vintage project seeks to advocate increased attention to the prevention of alcohol-related harm in old age on the agenda of public, private and voluntary organizations.
To help us to do so, we would very much appreciate it if you could respond to the attached questionnaire for collecting best practices on preventing the harmful use of alcohol amongst older people including the transition from work to retirement. Please read the instructions carefully and if there is any aspect that is not clear enough to you, do not hesitate to contact me as soon as possible.
In addition, if you do not know of any best practice, please send the questionnaire completed accordingly.
Finally, if you know anyone else in your country who could also help us, please let us know their contact details and we will contact them immediately.
Thanking you in advance for your help and looking forward to hearing from you soon
