Home Visits in Geropsychiatry Fellowship Training

The psychiatric home visit is an effective inter-vention for elderly patients who otherwise would not re-ceive mental health services. Home visits also have potential to be useful for training. Here, the current practice of home visits in geropsychiatry fellowship programs is examined. Design and Methods: The directors of 55 current gero-psychiatry fellowships in the United States were sent a 13-item questionnaire regarding the use of home visits for training. Results: Of the 51 % of programs responding, 57 % provide a formal home-visit experience for fellows. Respondents commented favorably regarding the educa-tional value of home visits, but raised concerns about funding this time-intensive clinical activity. Implications: Training programs in geropsychiatry can benefit from the inclusion of home-visit programs. A description of a recently established home-visit program illustrates the feasibility of such an enterprise when developed as a collaboration between a teaching hospital and an appropriate commu-nity agency. This arrangement provides training for fel-lows and allows the agency to provide broad mental health services