Am J Psychiatry 1980; 137:1399-1403
Copyright © 1980 by American Psychiatric Association
A clinic for the impaired elderly and their families
BV Reifler and C Eisdorfer
The need for improving psychiatric services to the elderly and for
recognizing the importance of the family in caring for the impaired elderly
led to the establishment of the Geriatric and Family Services, an
outpatient clinic. This clinic provides psychiatric, medical, social,
nursing, and architectural evaluations and recommendations for impaired
older persons and also provides support and practical advice to the family.
Most of the clinic's patients suffer from a dementing illness; of this
group most have dementia of the Alzheimer's type. The authors studied the
appointment-keeping behavior of the patients and also surveyed the
patients' families as an indication of the clinic's success. Out of 50
patients the broken-appointment rate, as well as the drop-out rate, was 2%;
90% of the families who responded to the questionnaire indicated they would
recommend the clinic's services to others.
