Schizophrenia Daily News Blog

New Care Program for Elderly in NC

The Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center is launching an innovative psychiatric care program for home-bound and frail elderly. This outreach service, which targets people over 65 years old that cannot easily access the mental health system due to frailty, disability, or their own psychiatric condition, is the first of it's kind in the United States.

Similar programs have shown successful results in Canada and the UK.

Proponents of the program hope that it will provide needed care to a growing demographic, hopefully avoiding an emergency or hospitalization situation, while still respecting the autonomy and the wishes of the patient to remain in their own home.

The Wake Forest Medical Center will work cooperatively with many community-based organizations in order to provide far-reaching care. Possible partners in the Wake Forest area include agencies such as Senior Services, community mental health agencies, the Area Agency on Aging, Hospice, primary care physicians, and the local home health agencies.

Source: "Program to take psychiatric services to frail elderly in their homes." Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, Feb 25 2005. (http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/510086/)