Establishment of a geriatric clinic in psychiatry outpatient setting of a tertiary care hospital: Impact on care of elderly and training

Although there is a rapid increase in the elderly population in India, there is a lack of geriatric mental health services across the country. In India, although the postgraduation psychiatry program is available across many centers, little attention is paid to the subspecialty of geriatric psychiatry during the postgraduation training. There are very few courses (in the form of doctorate of medicine and fellowship programs) available in the subspecialty of geriatric psychiatry in the country. In this background, this paper focuses on the experience of establishing a geriatric clinic in a postgraduation psychiatry department and the impact of the same on patient care, research, and training in the area of geriatric psychiatry. The patient care data suggest that with the establishment of the geriatric clinic, there is an increase in the number of elderly patients admitted to the inpatient setting and those receiving electroconvulsive therapy. Further, there is an increase in the research in the area of geriatric psychiatry.