The perils and the promises of opioids

As I began to do research for today’s reflection about opioids, my mind seemed to meet itself coming and going. So much information, and much of it complex and not easily understand by some who uses very little medication.

I have used Hydrocodone for post-surgical pain on occasion. But I didn’t like the “weird feeling” I had when taking it, so I moved to over-the-counter pain medication as soon as I could. I literally have no clue what happens to another person who becomes addicted to a prescription opioid.

That is one reason I’m looking forward to next Tuesday’s Geezer Forum on “Opioids: Peril and Promise”. I want to learn what to look for if someone I know appears to be in trouble with some medication. And I believe Dr. Scott Dunn will help me better understand that person who struggles.

Prescription opioids are used very effectively, very responsibly by most persons for whom short-term pain control is important. That is certainly the “promise” of opioids in a single sentence. But our country, and maybe even our county, is dealing with an opiod situation out-of-control.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention reports from 1999 to 2016 more than 200,000 persons in the United States died from addiction to prescription opioids. Overdose deaths involving prescription opioids were 5 times higher in 2016 than in 1999. Wow!

The personal turmoil that leads to a person becoming addicted is certainly where we might start learning to understand. The personal and family costs in human loss are enormous. But the costs certainly don’t end there. The economic costs ripple and roar through our entire national economy.

Where to start understanding that? Again we turn back to the impact on people we know, families we know, our community, schools, medical services, anywhere we might get some understanding of how this crisis begins in the “world” we know best.

We can do our research. We can read stories on Internet sources we trust. I quickly looked at the NPR (National Public Radio) website, and found stories on how persons and families were impacted. I also saw glimpses of how the medical communities nationally are trying so hard to do their parts to get the crisis under whatever control they have.

Most stories and the statistics I have found don’t tell me how older adults are currently impacted by opiod abuse. Perhaps gray hair and wrinkles makes us less susceptible to this form of abuse? I doubt that! But I am confident that regardless of how many gray hairs or wrinkles we have, we all are potentially impacted in our families or friendships by opiod abuse.

All of this is why I’m pleased Dr. Scott Dunn will spend time with Geezer Forum folks next Tuesday, May 10. Dr. Dunn has real passion about this health care crisis. He will share some of that informed passion with us on May 10, 2:30-4 p.m. at the Columbia Bank’s Community Room.

Paul R. Graves, M.Div., is lead geezer-in-training of Elder Advocates, a consulting ministry focused on aging issues. Contact Paul at 208-610-4971 or elderadvocates@nctv.com.