Describes the Southeast-Bayview Mental Health Center Geriatric Services Unit, which provides a comprehensive mental health program for the elderly of San Francisco. The program emphasis is on crisis intervention, with reliance on home visits and follow-up services as well as screening and referral. (JAC)

Medical records of older outpatients treated at 15 university teaching hospitals were reviewed to evaluate how their medical problems were managed in university-based internal medicine practices. The finding suggests either that these patients were extremely atypical or that their geriatric problems were unrecognized. (Author/MLW)

A good experiential training program in geriatrics provides students with the opportunity to apply their knowledge in the basic pharmaceutical disciplines; develop management and communication skills; formulate corrective and preventive strategies; and learn rational, safe, and effective drug use among the elderly. (MLW)

Summarizes the initial results of the regional geriatric medicine curriculum retreats for family practice residency directors provided as part of the American Academy of Family Physicians multi-part project to improve the amount and quality of geriatric medicine education received by family practice residents. (EV)

Chronological age is a marker in time but it fails to measure accurately the performance or behavioral characteristics of individuals. This paper models the complexity of aging by using a system model and a human function paradigm. These models help facilitate representation of older adults, integrate research agendas, and enhance remediative…

This paper focuses on three issues: (1) gender seems to structure life chances so that women and men end up with quite different fates in later life; (2) maintaining a sense of adequate masculinity seems to remain very important to men until the end of life, and most women also seem to need to experience themselves as feminine, but are less…

Traditionally, the treatment of geriatric patients suffering from Organic Brain Syndrome (OBS) has been characterized by non-therapeutic custodial care. To determine whether elderly clients with dementia can benefit from self-care skill training, and to compare their progress with clients without OBS, 30 clients of the Residential Aging Program in…

Since the elderly are a significant population of health care consumers, health care professionals should be trained to deliver health services to them as effectively and humanely as possible. While the primary tool for delivery of health care services to people is human communication, there is evidence that the communication between the providers…

The methodology and design implemented for the Continuing Education/Community Service Projects of the Gerontology Center at Pennsylvania State University was the first attempt to train a diverse body of service providers in aging. Identification of the population for training was a matter of exclusion rather than inclusion, with the direct service…

In order to meet the pharmaceutical health care needs of the elderly, pharmacy schools must better prepare students. A course developed by the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy and the Health Sciences Consortium to provide pharmacy schools with a model for developing and revising other courses is described. (MLW)

In spite of statistics that show that demographically there are increasingly more women than men as people age, and that epidemiologically women are more likely than men to utilize health services, most health services continue to be based on research and training that is both age and gender biased. Few mental health professionals are…

The origin of the responsibility of pharmacy schools to provide continuing education for pharmacists is examined. Characteristics of pharmacists as learners are identified in order to formulate the learning opportunities. Resources needed by schools to develop learning alternatives and strategies for meeting pharmacist needs are also discussed.…

Health communication, gerontology/geriatrics, and the interdisciplinary team approach to health care are considered together in this paper as a critical field for communication research. The first section of the paper offers a definition of interdisciplinary health care teams, then reviews their goals, composition, history and training. The second…

This address by the Director of the National Institute on Aging is a plea for the recognition of the necessity of fundamental research on the aging process. It cautions that new scientific discoveries need to be evaluated more carefully before they are used on humans, and warns that the effects of drugs and treatments on older people may vary from…

The Geriatric Assessment Unit (GAU), which has proven successful in urban areas, may be a viable system for providing health care to the elderly in rural areas. GAUs engage in assessment, follow-up response to findings, education, and research. The assessment component includes, at minimum, physical health, functional ability in activities of…