April Behavioral Health & Aging Newsletter

Welcome to OCEBHA’s monthly newsletter! Each month, we send out a newsletter highlighting some of the last month’s important news and applicable research in behavioral health and aging, and events and opportunities for the upcoming month. 

This month, we’re opening registration for OCEBHA’s third annual behavioral health and aging conference, and providing actionable research for practitioners on improving while aging and new behavioral health workforce legislation, along with select April events from our partners across Oregon. 

Aging in late life is often portrayed as a steady path toward physical and cognitive decline. But a new study by scientists at Yale University suggests an alternate narrative — that older individuals can and do improve over time, and their mindset toward aging plays a major part in their success.

Alcohol misuse is a growing, under-recognized, and under-treated health condition in older adults (defined here as adults 55 years old and older), who often present to the emergency department (ED) not in overt intoxication, but for alcohol-related consequences such as falls, medication-related adverse events, and functional decline. Although EDs are increasingly implementing routine alcohol screening, there remains a poor understanding of how this links to timely intervention.

Prescribing of benzodiazepines to US adults declined between 2018 and 2022, especially among those aged 56 years or older, new research revealed.

Researchers found a decrease in overall prescribing rates among all adults, from 4.7% to 3.4% over the study period. The largest decline came in the ≥ 56 age group, which also showed a significant drop in the number of benzodiazepine prescriptions per person.

The funding will go towards the Zero Suicide, a program that provides resources for healthcare systems to implement the Zero Suicide framework for adults who are at risk of suicide. The Zero Suicide framework is an evidence-based, comprehensive, multi-setting approach grounded in the belief that suicide deaths within care systems can be preventable, and AOT, a program to facilitate the implementation of AOT for adults with serious mental illness. 

Since the opioid epidemic was declared a public health emergency in 2017, it has claimed more than half a million lives. While the epidemic was initially driven by prescription opioids and heroin, it has evolved in recent years, to be dominated by synthetic fentanyl—a substance significantly more potent than morphine. By 2023, most counterfeit opioid pills contained a deadly dose. As of 2022, nearly 1 in 3 adults reported in a KFF survey that they or a family member have been addicted to opioids (29%).

Leading up to and during the pandemic, opioid overdose deaths increased sharply. Deaths began to fall in mid-2023 and have continued to decline, though they remain above pre-pandemic levels. While it is not possible to identify a single driver of the decline, multiple policy actions may have contributed. These policies included efforts to expand access to treatment and overdose-reversal drugs and public awareness efforts about counterfeit opioid pills. They also included supply-side actions aimed at improving fentanyl detection at the ports and borders and limiting the flow of precursor chemicals used to manufacture illicit fentanyl abroad. These efforts coincided with indicators of shifting fentanyl supply, including DEA testing that suggested lower fentanyl potency in counterfeit pills.

Oregon Governor Tina Kotek signed a bill in March, aiming to cut red tape contributing to the state’s behavioral health workforce crisis.

House Bill 4083 passed the Oregon Legislature with bipartisan support to help the behavioral health workforce — which includes professionals helping people living  with mental health challenges and substance use disorders. 

The bill has three key provisions. First, it aims to streamline credentialing for the behavioral health workforce. Next, the bill aims to reduce administrative burdens to allow workers more time with patients and reduce burnout. Third, the bill will implement cross-license supervision. The bill aims to retain and recruit behavioral health workers in the state to ensure Oregonians can receive care when needed.

April is Alcohol Awareness Month, a time to raise awareness and understanding about alcohol use and misuse. Studies have shown that alcohol is the most used substance among older adults, and in a 2021 report, SAMHSA estimated that more than 11% of adults 65 years of age or older had at least one binge drinking episode within a month of the survey.

Facts about older adults and alcohol use: 

There's helpful resources available on alcohol use and misuse prevention, treatment and recovery support services that you and your community can use to support those who may be struggling: samhsa.gov/alcohol