OLD AGE PSYCHIATRY   

Trainees will show knowledge of the aspects of psychiatric disorders, their presentation, and treatment in later life. This will include:   

 Demographic population changes in the UK and worldwide.  

 District service provision: the need for specialization, principles of service provision, multidisciplinary working regarding needs of an older population, relationships with and provision by social services and voluntary bodies. Liaison with geriatricians. Attention to the needs of carers.   

Specialist aspects of assessment of mental health in older people.   

Psychological aspects of physical disease; particular emphasis on possible psychiatric sequelae of Parkinson’s disease, cerebrovascular disease, sensory impairment. An emotional reaction to illness and to chronic ill-health. Secondary and reversible dementias.  

Prevalence/incidence, clinical features, differential diagnosis, etiology, management, and prognosis of the following disorders occurring in late life:     

 Suicide and attempted suicide in old age.   

 Psychiatric aspects of personality in old age.   

 Psychotherapy with older adults: adaptations and difference in therapy. Transference - counter-transference issues. Common themes.    

 Bereavement and adjustment disorders.   

 Sleep disorder in later life.   

 Psychosexual disorders in old age; including sexuality in physically ill/disabled people, sexuality in institutionalized elderly.