Centre for Policy on Ageing



The impact of two changes in service delivery on a geriatric psychiatry liaison service
Author(s)	Mala Baheerathan, Ajit Shah
Journal title	International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, vol 14, no 9, September 1999
Pages	pp 767-775
Keywords	Depression ; Psychiatric treatment ; Liaison ; Referrals ; Admission.
Annotation	The changes examined were admission policy and the introduction of a formal liaison component to a "consultation only" liaison geriatric psychiatry service. A 30-month study examined the impact of these changes on service delivery on: the referral rate; reasons for referral; and demographic and clinical characteristics of the referrals. Advice offered after assessment was examined retrospectively. There was a significant decline in the number of referrals for each month, with a decrease in the number of reasons for referral and management advice offered for social treatments per patient. The cost of a specialist registrar attending a geriatric medicine ward round was more than offset by the associated decline in the number of referrals per month. Results suggest that the liaison component has the potential to be cost-effective. There is a need for more formal clinical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness studies in liaison geriatric psychiatry. (RH).
Accession Number	CPA-000114209 A
Classmark	ENR: LP: QAK: L5R: QKH
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...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing.