Chemical dependency in the elderly has been identified by practitioners as a serious and growing problem. This article reports on the Elders Health Program, a research and demonstration project aimed at the problem of providing appropriate services for the chemically dependent senior. It describes the development of the screening process and presents the screening tools used as part of the identification strategy. In addition, it presents the results of the epidemiological data gathered using these screening tools. Finally, the article discusses the implications of the identification strategy for intervention, treatment, and further research as identified by the project research team.
