Care of elderly people with mental illness. Specialist services and medical training.

This paper is a summary of a report published in February 1989 by the Royal College of Physicians (of London) and Psychiatrists. It was produced by a joint working party set up to review progress and problems in the provision of specialist and hospital care to this expanding client group. The main sections of the report trace the development of specialist services for the psychiatry of old age, outline the main features and working relationships of such services and consider the implications for general and specialist medical training. The working party has also initiated a research project to examine the scope and effectiveness of different models of service for elderly people with mental illness. These sections are summarised below and are followed by the working party's recommendations which are printed in full.