Introduction

Day hospitals for older people typically provide a multidisciplinary service for a heterogeneous group of patients based largely upon a health care model. The broad objectives of day hospital attendance are now widely accepted (Figure 1). There is wide variation, nationally and locally, in the types of service provision. Little information is available to support evidence-based day hospital practice, partly due to the lack of an established methodology to evaluate current practice and allow comparison of different types of community-based rehabilitation and support. This review will confine itself to day hospitals for older people; day care and day hospitals for psychiatry of old age will not be discussed in any detail.