Daphne's* mother Joan* died three years ago.

In her prime Joan was a successful kindergarten teacher, happily married and mother of two children.

She loved to play the piano and was the life of the party.

But when her husband died 26 years ago Joan turned to alcohol. Eventually she moved to Lighthouse Beach in Port Macquarie determined to turn her life around.

But instead of alcohol Joan turned to prescription medication including Valium and the addictive painkiller Endone.

"We got her off the drinking but she didn't need to drink she had all the pills," Daphne said.

"Mum had so many medications it was insane.

"It didn't matter how much I took off her she would just doctor shop and get more.

"Mum could really work the doctors and the doctors didn't know what the other doctors had given."

Daphne said it would all come to a head when her mum would collapse and be taken to hospital.

"Mum would end up in a mess and we would have to take her to hospital," Daphne said.

She would return home clean only to relapse soon after.

Towards the end of her life the five foot seven Joan weighed just 46kg and stopped eating, relying completely on laxatives.

"She had anorexia towards the end, she wouldn't eat, just take pills to wipe herself out and she wouldn't know what she ate," Daphne said.

"If you try to confront them like all addicts they just get very angry and very defensive.

"She didn't live the last few years of her life because she was just too off her face."

Daphne does not blame doctors but argues the system needs to change.

"You have no control over the system," she said.

"Doctors don't have the authority to monitor a patient's whole life."

Daphne said the government must intervene.

She supports local pharmacist Judy Plunkett's call for a real-time monitoring system for prescription medication. This would allow doctors and pharmacists to access a central database of prescription records.

Daphne would also like to see more targeted services for the elderly.

"Rehab for the elderly," she said.

"They are an age group that people forget about, it is like the feeling is the sooner they are gone the better," she said.

"Here is your script off you go mentality."

Daphne said prescription drugs, in the end, destroyed her mum's life.

"Mum in the beginning was a person who people gravitated towards because she was happy and loved life," Daphne said.

"But in the end mum was a nasty, manipulative woman and it was all the addiction.

"We are all frustrated."

A report by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare released on Tuesday, January 21 found almost twice as many older Australians are using illegal drugs.

* Names have been changed to protect the identity of those involved in with this story.

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