The last pleasure : older women and alcohol

Presented at the 26th Annual Conference of the Canadian Association on Gerontology, October 23-26, 1997, Calgary, AB.This paper describes why some women turn to alcohol as a coping strategy in later life, placing it within the context of a serious health and social problem for older women. It considers 1) whether existing approaches need to be revised to better meet older women's needs on late life issues and 2) whether alternate frameworks, such as women-centred care, are better able to acknowledge the diversity among women and the diversity of necessary responses.