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Old age psychiatry: a speciality in transition

Results of the 1996 survey

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

John Wattis ,
Andrew MacDonald  and
Paul Newton
John Wattis
Affiliation:
Leeds Community and Mental Health Services NHS Trust The Mansion, Meanwood Park Hospital Tongue Lane, Leeds LS6 4QB
Andrew MacDonald
Affiliation:
Wakefield and Pontefract Community Health Trust
Paul Newton
Affiliation:
Leeds Community and Mental Health Services NHS Trust, Leeds
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Abstract

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Aims and methods

We aimed to update Information on the development of old age psychiatric services using a postal survey of consultants.

Results

The response rate (51%) was lower than previous surveys in the 1980s. Senior academic appointments showed little increase and academic posts were largely National Health Service (NHS) funded. Services had smaller catchment areas and increased numbers of staff in medicine, nursing and social work, but not in occupational therapy, physiotherapy and psychology. Relative workload was increasing and most services included early-onset dementia. There was a decrease in provision of NHS long-stay beds with only marginal changes in other facilities.

Clinical implications

Services were offering more to patients than previously. Weakness in academic development may cause problems for the future; the results suggested that recruitment in some disciplines may already be problematical. There is a need to develop the role of NHS long-stay facilities.

Type
Original papers
Information
Psychiatric Bulletin , Volume 23 , Issue 6 , June 1999 , pp. 331 - 335
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © 1999 The Royal College of Psychiatrists

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