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GERIATRIC AND PSYCHOGERIATRIC PATIENT REQUIREMENTS IN PERTH, WESTERN AUSTRALIA
Author(s) -
Burvill P. W.
Publication year - 1970
Publication title -
medical journal of australia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.904
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1326-5377
pISSN - 0025-729X
DOI - 10.5694/j.1326-5377.1970.tb77822.x
Subject(s) - metropolitan area , accommodation , service (business) , nursing homes , geriatrics , mental health , population , medicine , gerontology , nursing , psychology , psychiatry , environmental health , business , pathology , marketing , neuroscience
In Perth, Western Australia, the number of elderly patients in various types of long‐term care facilities is three times the figure advocated for Britain's needs. Reasons for this are discussed. A proposal Is made for a system of categorizing elderly patients requiring long‐term accommodation, placing emphasis on the patients' mobility and capacity for self‐care in the ward setting, and ignoring distinctions between medical and psychiatric illness. Using this system, it is estimated that 3.8 hospital/nursing home beds per 1,000 of the total population in the metropolitan area of Perth are sufficient to cater for the in‐patient needs of the elderly in Perth. The needs of psychogeriatric patient care in Perth are discussed. Details are outlined of a proposed psychogeriatric service based on the major general teaching hospitals, but administered as a separate division of the State Mental Health Services.