A comparison study of day hospital and day centre attenders

There has been much recent debate on the appropriateness and relative roles of the two main forms of day care available for dementia sufferers (day hospitals and day centres). The characteristics of day care attenders are an important aspect of this debate and have been examined in this study. The area surveyed (North Edinburgh) is unusual not only in respect of the relatively high number of day centre places but also in respect of the close working relationship between day centre and day hospital staff. Current data indicates that many of the attenders at day hospitals and day centres have similar characteristics suggesting that much of the work currently done in day hospitals could be done in day centres, and that even in North Edinburgh there is room for a further expansion in day centre places. Such expansion should not be wholly at the expense of day hospital services as not only are they providing, almost exclusively, a service for the most severely affected, but there is evidence that a small number of day centre attenders would benefit from a multi-disciplinary assessment such as the day hospital provides. For the two services to work effectively close liasion between workers, such as already exists in North Edinburgh, is a prerequisite.