News, reports and resources

Latest issue of The Old Age Psychiatrist

• (PDF)May 2025

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• January 2025 (PDF)
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If you would like an earlier edition, please contact our archivist at francis.maunze@rcpsych.ac.uk.

Contribute to the newsletter

If you would like to contribute to the newsletter, email your ideas to the Editorial Team.

Helpful tips

We've produced some guidance on writing for the newsletter (PDF), including the type of articles we are looking for and the best ways to write them.

College reports

• (PDF)Coronavirus: managing delirium in confirmed and suspected cases - joint report with the BGS and European Delirium Association, 19 March 2020 
• Position statement on frailty: ensuring the best outcomes for frail older people (PDF) February 2020
• Position statement on loneliness and social isolation (PDF) - joint report with the BGS, December 2019
• Integrated care and mental health November 2019
• CR222 Caring for the whole person: physical healthcare of older adults with mental illness: integration of care May 2019
• PSO2/19: Position statement on the provision of liaison psychiatry services across the lifespan May 2019
• CR218: Bridges not walls: good practice guidance for transition and cooperation between mental health services for older patients May 2019
• CR221: Suffering in silence: age inequality in older people’s mental health care 
• CR217: Young-onset dementia in mental health services 
• CR211: Our Invisible Addicts 

College joint reports

• Are we ready to deliver disease modifying treatments: by RCPsych and Alzheimer's Research, May 2021 (PDF)

Faculty reports

• Delivering the NHS Long-Term Plan's ambition of ageing well: Old age psychiatry as a vital resource (PDF) FR/OA/06 
• The integration of care and its impact on older people's mental health (PDF) FR/OA/05 
• Criteria for old age psychiatry services in the UK (PDF)FR/OA/04 
• Depression in care homes (PDF) - joint report with the BGS 2018 
• Careers leaflet for Foundation Doctors (PDF)2018 
• Outcomes in older people's mental health service (PDF)November 2017

National adoption of FDG-PET scanning in Wales

Background information on the RCPsych Wales website

Interview with Dr Chineze Ivenso, Chair of Old Age Faculty, RCPsych Wales, ITV Wales

Survey of services results

• Key results of the 2018 survey of services (PDF) 
• Key results of the 2017 survey of services (DOC)

Dementia

• The use of neuroimaging techniques in the early and differential diagnosis of dementia, paper in Molecular Psychiatry, August 2023
• Understanding Dementia Diagnosis During Covid-19: patient and practitioner experiences, Alzheimer Scotland Dementia Research Centre
  
• See best practice guidance for commissioners and carers. For more information visit the NHS England Clinical Network website Dementia section.
• Guidance on Neuroimaging for dementia (PDF)
• Streamlining Memory Service Pathways (PDF)
• The Young Onset Dementia Pathway (PDF) gives recommendations for commissioners and practitioners to create the ideal care pathway. It was developed by people affected by young onset dementia and the people who work with and support them
• National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health Dementia Care Pathway
• Guidelines for the peri-operative care of people with dementia (Wiley Online Library)

Other topics

• Medicines and Falls (PDF), NHS National Falls Prevention Coordination Group, July 2023
• Medicines Optimisation, Royal Pharmaceutical Society, 2021
  
• Older People's Mental Health Competency Framework (PDF), by Health Education England, April 2020
  
• Driving with Dementia or Mild Cognitive Impairment Consensus Guidelines, by Newcastle University and endorsed by the College (2018)
• Hidden in plain sight, by Age UK, examines the unmet mental health needs of older people.
• MindEd is a new educational resource that has been co-produced with older people. It explains a range of mental illnesses/concerns and offers practical advice for dealing with them.
• NHS England's Mental Health in Older People Practice Primer (PDF) helps improve recognition of mental health issues in older people.
• Physical health drugs start-stop reminder card (DOC) (Word)
• Brain Health and Mental Well-Being: GCBH Recommendations on Feeling Good and Functioning Well (PDF)

Videos

We have curated a selection of videos created by other organisations for sharing and teaching purposes.

Watch our video resources

Engaging Minds: Webinars for Old Age Psychiatry Higher Trainees is a new series designed specifically for trainees, to give you access to clinical updates, networking opportunities and engagement with experts. Sessions are designed and hosted by the Trainee Representatives from the Old Age Faculty, and are only open to Higher Trainees to attend, thanks to the generous funding support of the Faculty.

Faculty of Old Age Psychiatry Annual Conference, 27-28 March 2025, Liverpool

Community Mental Health Transformation webinar, 26 April 2021

The epidemiology and presentation of mental illness in older people is different to younger adults, and older people with mental illness often have a unique and complex set of physical, psychological and social factors complicating their care. For these reasons older people need dedicated inpatient and community mental health teams to look after them.

There is a global history of ageism in the funding and delivery of mental health services for older people. The UK has led the way in developing age-specific services which research has shown improve care in this group. These services are now under threat in the UK by the move to "ageless services". Commissioners and trusts have various reasons to consider this including a misguided belief it may save money or misinterpretation of the Equalities Acts around the UK.

The College is clear that older people need dedicated age-specific mental health services. We have assembled a compendium of evidence to support this below.

If your services are under threat, please look at and use this evidence. Many people have already found it helpful to rebut the move to ageless services.

• 'Ageless' dementia services are an insult to the elderly - The Telegraph
• Development of ageless mental health services - letter (DOC)
• Criteria for Old Age psychiatry services in the UK (PDF)
• IPG guest editorial: Wither old age psychiatry? (PDF)
• JCPMH: Guidance for commissioners of older people’s mental health services (PDF)
• Letter in The Lancet: Psychiatry for the elderly in the UK (PDF)
• IJGP letter: Redefining old age psychiatry - a pragmatic approach (PDF)
• The Times Letter to the Editor: Mental health and how the other half lives (PDF)
• RCPsych letter to Jeremy Hunt - Ageless services (PDF)
• BJPsych editorial: Old age psychiatry in the modern age (PDF)
• JGCR: Ageless mental health services and the future of old age psychiatry in the UK (PDF).
• Nilforooshan R et al (2016) Comparison of service utilisation and costs of working age adults and older adults receiving treatment for psychosis and severe non‐psychotic conditions in England: implications for commissioning.  International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 32:110-115.
• Abdul-Hamid WK, Lewis-Cole K, Holloway F, Silverman AM. Comparison of how old age psychiatry and general adult psychiatry services meet the needs of elderly people with functional mental illness: cross-sectional survey. Br J Psychiatry 2015; 207: 440–3.

Please give us any feedback as to whether these resources help or not in your fight to preserve your services.

Learning together – a collaborative case discussion, 8 September 2021

This webinar was chaired by Professor Linda Gask, Consultant Psychiatrist and is a collaborative case discussion between GPs and Old Age Psychiatrists, focusing on:

• Anxiety and depression – Professor Carolyn-Chew Graham (Academic GP) and Dr Suhana Ahmed (Consultant Psychiatrist)
• Risk assessment – Dr Ruth Thompson (GP) and Dr Suhana Ahmed (Consultant Psychiatrist)
• Alcohol – Dr Tony Rao (Consultant Psychiatrist) and Dr Ruth Thompson (GP)
• Sleep disturbance – Professor Hazel Everitt (Academic GP) and Dr Mani Krishnan (Consultant Psychiatrist)

You can find additional resources below:

• The UK SHARD Trial of Behavioral Activation – The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry
• NHS: How to get to sleep
• Antidepressants for insomnia in adults. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. Everitt, H., Baldwin, D., Stuart, B., Lipinska, G., Mayers, A., Malizia, A. L., Manson, C., & Wilson, S. (2018). (5), [CD010753].
• GPs' management strategies for patients with insomnia: a survey and qualitative interview study. Everitt, H., McDermott, L., Leydon, G., Yules, H., Baldwin, D., & Little, P. (2014). British Journal of General Practice, 64(619), e112-e119.
  
• Sleepio