In this Elder Law Minute, Wes Coulson would like everyone to be aware of the potential side effects of medication.
Transcript:
Hi! I’m Wes Coulson from Dent-Coulson Elder Law, proudly serving clients throughout the St. Louis metropolitan area and beyond. I’d like to welcome you to our Elder Law and Estate Planning Minute. We do these to help educate people, give them some little tips, and especially to let them know the questions they need to ask, things that they’ve maybe not thought of. Our thought on that is that we can help you best if you realize the things that you need help and that we can help you with. So I hope you enjoy. Thanks!
Sometimes as an elder law attorney, I have access to some information that really doesn’t have anything directly to do with elder law, but that is important to the clients that we serve. And so, this elder law minute is going to be, if you will, kind of in the nature of a public service announcement.
There’s been a recent study that found that the percentage of adults aged 65 and older, who are prescribed a drug that increases their risk of falls, climbed to 94% in 2017. A significant leap from the 57% who were prescribed such drugs as recently as 1999. The research also revealed that the rate of death caused by falls in older adults more than doubled in the same time period.
So, the lesson here is pretty obvious. If you are being prescribed drugs, you need to ask about side effects and one of those side effects is the risk of falls, and you really need to have a discussion with the doctor as to whether the benefits of that drug outweigh the potential harm caused by risk of falls. That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t take medication, but it might mean that the doctor might want to be aware of that and look to see if there is another drug available that’s not associated with that risk, or another way of addressing the problem. Thanks!
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Dent-Coulson Elder Law is dedicated to providing families in the St. Louis area with their Elder Law needs. Our practice areas include Asset Preservation Planning, Veterans Benefits, Medicaid Eligibility, Alzheimer’s Planning, Special Needs Planning, Estate Planning and more. We understand the financial challenges you may face as you and your loved ones grow older. At Dent-Coulson Elder Law, our clients’ well-being is our number one priority. For immediate help, call (618) 632-7000 (IL) or (314) 567-9292 (MO), or Contact Us and we will get in touch as soon as possible.
