MedEdPORTAL (Mar 2014)
Geriatric Psychiatry: Just So You Know
Abstract
Abstract Introduction By 2030 about 20% of the U.S. population will be over age 65. The Institute of Medicine report published in 2012 titled “The Mental Health and Substance Abuse Workforce, In Whose Hands?” decries the shortage of specialists in geriatrics and geriatric psychiatry. Due to this shortage, most geriatric mental health will be provided by non-specialists. Current medical students, and all clinicians, need to be prepared to assess older patients with psychiatric symptoms. This educational package attempts to maximize coverage of topics pertaining to geriatric psychiatry not covered in other disciplines (e.g. delirium, often covered in neurology and medicine, and at our institution, in the consultation-liaison lecture). Methods This educational package includes four content-rich preparatory emails and a case-based, interactive lecture with a small group exercise to introduce geriatric psychiatry to clinical health science trainees. The interactive lecture with small group exercise is designed to be delivered in a 90 minute timeslot although it could be condensed to 60 minutes if time were limited. In the weeks leading up to the lecture, a series of emails are sent on a weekly basis to prepare students for the lecture. Topics of the emails include assessing cognition and functioning in the elderly, depression in late life, and dementia. Results The educational package was implemented at the University of Michigan to the third-year medical student class over the 2012-2013 academic year (N = 148). At the conclusion of the lecture, students were asked to complete a questionnaire. Their responses revealed that they did indeed open and read the emails, and found them useful, both in preparing for the lecture and in later clinical encounters. A group students (n = 41) who had participated in this package at the end of their M-3 year in the 2011-2012 academic year completed a survey at the end of their fourth year. Of the 21 students who responded and had read the emails, 95% agreed that the combination of emails and the lecture was useful in patient care in subsequent, non-psychiatric rotations. Discussion This educational package was designed to maximize key points of geriatric psychiatry not covered by other disciplines or in other psychiatry lectures due to time restrictions. If more time were available, ideally a second or third lecture on the following topics could be included: normal aging, cognitive testing, delirium, subtypes of dementia, and psychopharmacology and aging.
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