Reality orientation with elderly patients in the community: an empirical evaluation.

There is now good evidence that elderly mentally impaired patients can be re-orientated for time, place and person using the technique of reality orientation (RO). To date, all empirical trials demonstrating this have been carried out on elderly institutionalized patients. This technique however might be of greater value to those elderly dementing patients still living with relatives in the community but attending geriatric psychiatry day hospitals, where they could receive RO in a consistent and systematic way. The results of an empirical study of RO with a group of such patients is reported. These showed that day hospital patients could be effectively re-orientated and that concomitant with changes in level of orientation of the patients, there were parallel changes in the patients' behaviour at home, reported stress on relatives and in relatives' mood.