Wednesday 4 June 2014

Psychiatric support teams improve patient care and save hospitals millions | Sarah Whitehead

Psychiatric support teams improve patient care and save hospitals millions | Sarah Whitehead  A project to diagnose mental illness in inpatients is improving treatment while also reducing readmissions and waiting lists.

Vicky Mason, 69, cares for her 94-year-old mother, Jane, who was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease a decade ago. In recent years, Jane has begun to show signs of dementia and delirium. "She has been deteriorating over the past few years. She still knows who we are, but her memory is fading," says Mason.

But a project to provide specialist psychiatric support to dementia patients while they are in hospital has
both stabilised Jane's cognitive abilities and improved the way in which her Parkinson's is treated. On noticing a change in behaviour, the doctors treating Mason's mum on the Parkinson's ward in Heartlands
hospital, Birmingham, referred her to the project's rapid assessment interface and discharge (Raid) team based in the hospital, for immediate specialist psychiatric support. Continue reading.. The Guardian

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