Review of day-hospital provision in psychogeriatrics

This paper presents an overview of the current provision of day hospitals for the elderly mentally ill. By reviewing available literature the author attempts to answer a series of questions--Why is there a need for the psychogeriatric day hospital? What are the aims of those who run them? Who attends? What do they do all day? How do they get there? Who works in the day hospital? Is the service fulfilling its function? The paper ends with a consideration of how such day services may best be used in the future, and suggests that day hospitals may offer a most effective service to those elderly people with active support in the community. For this group of patients, maintenance for as long as possible within the community may be achieved through early assessment, diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation, coupled with regular respite for the caregiver, and the day hospital provides an ideal setting for such a programme.