Pathways to long-term geriatric hospital care.

This paper describes the pathways that are taken to long-term geriatric hospital care. Information was collected for 160 people currently receiving such care, and it was found that 110 different pathways were taken to a long-term geriatric bed. The most commonly experienced accommodation settings were acute hospital care, and living in the community with some form of disability but no domiciliary services, which were also the most frequent ways of beginning the pathways. The ends of the pathways were characterized by acute hospital care, short-term geriatric or convalescent care and rest or residential care. Domiciliary services had been used by less than half of the sample, and many of these appeared to have been receiving only a minimal level of support. This paper also examines the role of the assessment and rehabilitation unit, and seeks to comment on how services designed to reduce the demand for long-term geriatric care have been used.