Older people in New York are dying from drug overdose or suicide at much higher rates now compared with a decade ago. That’s according to the latest America’s Health Rankings Senior Report from UnitedHealthcare. The report found in New York, suicides have increased nearly 10-percent, frequent mental distress is up about nine-percent and drug deaths among people 65 and older have doubled in the last 10 to 12 years. Aleks Malejs is with a peer support group in Buffalo for people struggling with addiction. She points to fentanyl as a major cause of the uptick in drug-related deaths, because it’s 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine, and it’s showing up in heroin, cocaine, oxycontin and other drugs with more and more frequency…
Malejs notes more than eight-thousand people have called for help this year alone.