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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Sharing letters with patients and their carers
— problems and outcomes in elderly and dementia care | | Author(s) | Adrian Treloar, Dimitrios Adamis |
| Journal title | Psychiatric Bulletin, vol 29, no 9, September 2005 |
| Pages | pp 330-333 |
| Source | http://pb.rcpsych.org |
| Keywords | Dementia ; Diagnosis ; Communication ; Psychiatrists ; Patients ; Informal care ; Attitude ; Cross sectional surveys. |
| Annotation | Sharing information with carers may be both helpful and good practice, but the issue of confidentiality is a concern. A cross-sectional survey assessed the attitudes of older patients and their carers towards receiving copies of letters about them and the effects upon outcomes of sharing letters. The authors also studied the opinion of consultants on letter-sharing. Few old-age psychiatrists shared letters with patients or carers, and many had concerns about this practice. In contrast, letters were considered "very welcome" by 87% of patients and carers who received them, and 81% of those who did not would be "very pleased" to receive them. Patients and carers who had received letters had significantly better knowledge of their care plan, whom to contact, and ways of making contact with services. Despite concerns expressed by psychiatrists, the authors' findings support the sharing of letters with patients and carers of patients with dementia in old age psychiatry services. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-050926219 A |
| Classmark | EA: LK7: U: QT9: LF: P6: DP: 3KB |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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