EPA-1325 - Relevance of a mobile psychiatric team for elderly patients within institutions for old people

Abstract

As they grow older, patients with severe psychiatric illness often have less access to psychiatric care due to loss of autonomy and difficulties in getting about. The recently created Psychiatric Liaison Experimental Unit - ULP - (made up of psychiatrists, nurses and a coordinator), a mobile team in the retirement homes and residences of Paris's Social Services Center (2,600 beds) must enable residents suffering from psychiatric problems to get better treatment. In old people's homes, residents rarely have the opportunity to consult a psychiatrist. Geriatric staff are often at a loss when faced with the expression of psychiatric symptoms, with the specificity of caring for younger patients whose behaviour is different from older people with neurodegenerative disorders. The involvement of community mental health services lacks homogeneity. Professionals in the field of psychiatry and geriatrics are not very familiar with each other's work. The team's purpose is to create a link between the two, to promote partnerships so as to find housing for ageing dependent psychiatric patients. They also provide their expertise in complex cases. Appointed and financed over three years by the health authorities, this team will be assessed on how they set up partnerships, on the quality of the links they create and on the improvement in the living conditions and the care these older patients get. We will present the various missions of this team and a model of a locally based network approach of psychiatric care for elderly patients.