Giving Compass' Take:

• Liz Seegert discusses how the opioid epidemic is impacting older adults living in rural areas. 

• What unique challenges make it difficult to serve this population? How does this play into systemic changes needed to address the opioid crisis? 

• Find out how impact investors can take on the opioid crisis. 

What comes to mind when you think of someone addicted to prescription pain medication? It’s probably not a 70-something grandparent living on a farm in the heartland or a 60-something retired miner from Appalachia. Yet the opioid crisis and its fallout are very real for the older population. For rural older residents, opioid addiction presents an especially difficult set of circumstances.

Yet the opioid crisis and its fallout are very real for the older population. For rural older residents, opioid addiction presents an especially difficult set of circumstances. Shortages of qualified health providers, a lack of treatment programs or an inability to access the few available clinics mean many go without appropriate care.

Since the year 2000, an estimated 300,000 people in the United States have died of an opioid-related overdose. An estimated 2 million Americans have an opioid use disorder, according to the GIA report.

Most older people don’t start out thinking they’ll get addicted to pain medication. Maybe they had a knee replacement or get injured in a fall and start on prescribed opioids after surgery, then can just never get off them, Estes explained.

Read the full article about opioids and older adults by Liz Seegert at Next Avenue.