Psychotherapy in geriatric long-term care

Psychotherapy with older adult nursing home residents will likely be carried out with two groups of patients. the chronically mentally ill, ana the medical rehabilitation patients. A typology of patients with mental illness is described: the mild cognitively impaired and behaviorally disturbed, the cognitively intact but interpersonally troubled, and the mentally iii patients who have lost their support systems. Unique inpatient methods of assessing and treating depression and alcohol abuse are explored for rehabilitation patients. For both groups there is a focus on functioning and behavioral outcomes. (C) 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.