A profile of inpatient admissions to an aged psychiatry service in Victoria

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: The study aimed to characterize the demographics, diagnostic makeup and aspects of patient management for the inpatient population of a large aged psychiatry service. METHOD: Sociodemographic and clinical variables were retrospectively collated from inpatient files and discharge summaries over a 3-year period. Age, gender, country of birth, diagnostic group, length of stay, involuntary care status and number of admissions were described and analysed. A total of 604 patients were included in the study, with complete data available for 516. RESULTS: Approximately half of the patients were aged 65-75 years and 59.3% were female. More than half had been born outside of Australia. The ..