Promise and Practice: WA Psychiatry for the Elderly

Psychiatry of Old Age

“…Several emphasise the importance of links with geriatric medicine, but they make it clear that their services are distinctand psychiatric. In Western Australia, resources (and morale) have diminished dramatically since 1987 [5]; Bendigo (Victoria) provides a heartening contrast, their community psychiatric team for elderly people having expanded from two to eleven health professionals within the last two years! However, this is not attributable to a dearth of enthusiastic psychogeriatricians; most city areas in New South Wales and Victoria are served by at least one psychogeriatrician, with a ratio in city areas of more than 1:30,000 [4].…”