A survey of the first two years of a psychiatric clinic within a geriatric medical day hospital was undertaken to determine the role of such a clinic. Forty per cent of all day hospital attenders were referred for psychiatric evaluation: at least 80 per cent of these had major psychiatric diagnoses and 20 per cent had other conditions needing psychosocial intervention. Depression and dementia accounted for 62 per cent of all psychiatric referrals. Those who were referred to the psychiatric clinic were quite comparable to the unreferred group in age, sex, marital status, pre-retirement employment and source of referral to the day hospital. The outcomes of intervention at three, six and 12 months were similar in both groups but referred patients stayed longer in the program. It is concluded that such a clinic provides a necessary mental health service where it is needed.

To determine if the post-operative experience of elderly and younger patients is different, data were collected from 41 elderly patients (65 years and older) and 249 younger patients (under 65 years). Pain and anxiety were assessed on days two and three post-operative. Anxiety was also measured pre-operatively. Amount of analgesic ordered and given, and time of last analgesic prior to pain assessment were recorded. Significant differences were found in the number of analgesics given, with the elderly receiving fewer analgesics. There were no significant differences in pain intensity levels. In both age categories patients were given less analgesic on the third post-operative day, regardless of pain intensity. The two groups chose almost, identical pain descriptors. In both groups strong associations were observed between post-operative anxiety and pain, but pre-operative anxiety seemed unrelated to post-operative pain levels. It was concluded that health care professionals manage pain similarly for both younger and elderly patients, but the elderly require less analgesic for pain control.

In this study, a number of demographic, health, and personality measures were collected from a sample of institutionalized and non-institutionalized elderly people in Newfoundland. These measures were then regressed on the number of medicines used. The analyses showed that the primary predictor of medicine use in both samples is Disease Severity, a combination of the number of different diseases or disorders and the extent of their severity. This factor accounts for about 28 to 33 per cent of the variance. No other factor predicted medicine use for institutionalized elderly, but for non-institutionalized elderly, Health Rating, how the individual perceives his or her own health, accounts for an additional 5 to 7 per cent of the variance. Disease Severity and Health Rating do not interact, but make independent, additive contributions to predicting medicine use. Disease Severity and Health Rating also predict total drug use and changes in drug use over a period of 12 to 18 months. When variance due to Disease Severity and Health Rating are accounted for, sex and age do not significantly predict medicine use.

Geriatric consultation programs have been developed to service elderly patients in a number of acute care hospitals. Evaluation studies examining their utility have shown variable results. Suggested explanations for these inconsistent findings include differing study designs, various service delivery strategies, differing outcome measurements, and site-specific factors. The evidence suggests that the critical variable may well be the methods utilized in patient recruitment. Further work is required in a number of areas such as: (1) development of optimal targeting strategies, (2) determination of appropriate service composition and function, (3) study of how these programs interact with other components of a comprehensive geriatric program, (4) documentation of the long-term (1 year) impact on assessed patients, and (5) evaluation of the institutional impacts of these programs.

This study evaluates the leisure participation of tenants, living in two apartment buildings in relation to sex, maternal language, education, leisure motivation and participation in a senior citizen's club. The data analysed through a general linear model revealed five statistically significant types of leisure activities: (a) parochial, (b) physical, (c) popular, (d) social, and (e) organized groups. The implications of these results for recreation specialists working with the elderly in apartment buildings are discussed.

The Fraboni Scale of Ageism (FSA) is introduced in this study with reports of its factor structure, internal consistency reliability, and its relationship to The Acceptance of Others Scale, The Facts on Aging Quiz, and The Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale (N = 231). The FSA construct is derived from Butler's (1978) definition of ageism, and is intended to measure the affective component of attitude to supplement the cognitive aspect measured by other instruments. The FSA was found to have adequate construct validity and high internal reliability. Relationships to the other constructs measured supported the uniqueness of the FSA and revealed a lack of influence from social desirability. Sex was found to account for some variance in FSA scores.