Who needs psychogeriatric continuing care?

✍ Scribed by Dominic Lam; Matthew Sewell; Gary Bell; Cornelius Katona

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1989
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 422 KB
• Volume: 4
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0885-6230
• DOI: 10.1002/gps.930040209

✦ Synopsis

A survey of the degree of mental impairment, physical disability and behavioural problems was undertaken in residents in psychogeriatric continuing care beds at Friern Hospital (n = 96) and Islington Local Authority old people's homes (OPHs) (n 104). High levels of dependency were identified, particularly in those subjects with a clinical diagnosis of dementia, who constituted 80% of the hospital sample and 43% in OPHs. Precipitants of admission differed between the hospital and OPH groups (incontinence, aggression and wandering vs poor self-care and living alone), both for the total sample and for those subjects with a clinical diagnosis of dementia. Subjects with dementia in the two settings, however, showed similarly high levels of dependency and behavioural problems. The implications of these findings for planned local reprovision of continuing psychogeriatric care and for the future development of local authority residential care are discussed.

KEY worn-Residential care, dementia, physical disability.