Delirium in patients older than 70 years is a frequnet problem on somatic wards in the general hospital, leading to adverse events such as falls, and/or prolonged length of hospitals stay.

Albeit c-l-psychiatrists and geriatricians since long have advocated the necessitiy to improve this situation, nothing really happens.

This lecture discusses problems, perils and pitfalls of this unsatisfying situation and tries to answer questions such as whether guidelines could be of help here, and whether pilot projects could be useful to lead the field further. The latter issue will be illustrated with two examples from Germany.