Day hospital for psychogeriatric patients: implementation of best practice

Abstract

AbstractBackgroundPsychogeriatric day hospitals best practices deliver integrated patient and family centered care by multidisciplinary teams, providing a safer transition between acute psychogeriatric units to rehabilitation services and outpatients clinical care. This reduces inpatient length of stay and rehospitalization rates, favoring a successful daily routine care at home. We implemented in 2022 an elderly day hospital service at the Institute of Psychiatry USP Medical School, Brazil. This case report illustrates how day hospitals can contribute to a better clinical outcome.Case report64 year‐old male patient with bipolar disorder (BD), recurrent readmissions in our psychogeriatric unit due to either complications from bipolar disorder or clinical conditions and family burden (2020 for 90 days due to rapid cycling BD and 2021 to treat clinical conditions 4 days). When he was at home his family reported increased burden and difficulty in daily care. They asked for readmissions in this period .The cognitive impairment and functional decline were associated with neuroprogression in BD.The lack of adequate treatment worsened psychiatric, cognitive symptoms and the capacity to maintain his activities of daily living (ADL).In 2022 he was admitted due to behavior symptoms (irritability and aggressivity) in our inpatient unit for 19 days. Transitioned to day hospital, he attended activities for two months, twice a week. The intervention provided cognitive and functional stimulation, caregivers training and psychoeducation. It was performed in groups and individually (patient and family).We observed improvement in cognition, basic daily life activities and social support. Admission and transition to outpatient care were CGI‐04‐04, MMSE 20‐23 and Katz 02‐04. We observed reduction in family burden and management of psychiatric and behavior symptoms.ConclusionPatient and family needs were identified and cared for, and we achieved an improved health outcome by creating a safe transition, reducing length of stay and preventing readmission. This present intervention demonstrates a clinical example of the coordinated approach in order to provide transitional care and enable rehabilitation (cognition, basic daily life and bipolar symptoms).The benefits of the patient‐ family centered care provides consistent recovery and decreased length of hospital stay and risk of readmission.