IMPROVING THE MENTAL HEALTH CARE DELIVERY SYSTEM FOR ELDERLY NURSING HOME PATIENTS

It is well known that the mental health care delivery system for aged nursing home patients is inadequate. Based on information gained from face to face interviews and from a mail survey of nursing home personnel, the range and usefulness of the resources and services available for mental health care in nursing homes are identified. This information is then used to derive recommendations for the development of a more effective mental health care delivery package for nursing homes. MENTAL DISORDERS IN NURSING HOMES Dimensions of the problem. The diagnosis of mental disorders remains an inexact art with very low reliability (eg., Rosenhan, 1973, 1975; Hoffman, 1982). Consequently, figures on the incidence and prevalence of different types of mental disorders can be treated only as 'best guesses. ' Estimte of the-71-percentage of nursing home residents with mental disorders, therefore, range very widely from study to study, depending primarily on how many of the psychiatric classifications officially recognized by the American Psychiatric Association are counted and on the skills and training of the diagnosticians who make the diagnoses. One national estimate sets the figures at about 58 % and 19 % respectively for the prevalence of organic brain syndromes and other mental disorders among nursing hom