Joint geriatric and old‐age psychiatric wards in the UK, 1940s–early 1990s: a historical study

Abstract

Reasons for the limited success of joint geriatric-psychiatric units might have included personalities of individuals, administrative boundaries separating geriatrics and medicine, unequal numbers of geriatricians and old-age psychiatrists, varying professional ideologies about the meaning of 'integrated' services, lack of reciprocity for each other's inpatients and lack of government support. Identified stumbling blocks need to be considered when planning joint clinical schemes. If current research indicates benefits of integrated wards for patients and their families, there needs to be ways to ensure that personal factors and fashions of management or government re-prioritisation will not lead to their premature termination.

Psychiatric Hospitals and Older People: Status Quo or Making Changes?

“…The circulars recommended joint psychiatric-geriatric assessment schemes, but were noncommittal about funding and did not inspire or entice clinicians into the field. Joint schemes hardly materialised (Hilton 2014;Webster 1991a, p. 178). The titles of the circulars also revealed prevailing attitudes and expectations: passive 'care' for mental disorders compared to active 'treatment' for physical conditions.…”

The dement in the community: Social work practice with people with dementia revisited

“…In this text she presents data relating to 275 case records and seven illustrative case studies. These types of record and reflection are a forgotten part of the history of dementia care services and practice which itself is only rarely reported (Hilton, 2014) by medical practitioners as part of the evolution of their own specialities of geriatrics and psychogeriatrics.…”