A tool to assess the cognitively impaired elderly

When elderly persons become cognitively impaired, decision-making and case management can be intensely frustrating for health care providers who must make provisions for both short-term and long-term care. Numerous barriers pose challenges to the case managers in addition to those that occur when health care terminology does not fit easily into the legal vocabulary of the judge who makes the ultimate decision naming a guardian or conservator. Ongoing research by the authors has been involved in identifying criteria to determine incompetency by both formal and informal caregivers of cognitively impaired elderly. A scale, currently consisting of 10 criteria, has been developed and continues to be refined by the authors.