Education in geriatric psychiatry

Abstract

The UK has seen many significant developments during the last 30 years in geriatric psychiatry, with emphasis on multi-disciplinary working and on the integration of services for the elderly. Accompanying these changes has been a growing public consciousness of the psychiatric disorders of later life and of the needs of old people and their carers. With a huge increase this century in the proportion of very elderly people, care of the elderly has achieved greater recognition in the medical training of both generalists and specialists. Greater emphasis also is being given to gerontology, both social and biological. In this paper the authors examine recent developments in medical education in the UK and show how changing approaches to medical training are shaping developments in geriatric psychiatry education. They describe recent innovations in both teaching styles and assessment methods and consider how developments in Computer Aided Learning can be applied to the teaching of geriatric psychiatry.