Care of Older People with Mental Illness : Specialist Services and Medical Training - Report of a Joint Working Party of the Royal College of Phychiatrists and Royal College of Physicians

This report celebrates achievements since the original 1989 joint report, in particular, the recognition of old age psychiatry as a specialty in its own right.

Aimed at a wide group of potential readers including commissioners of services for older people, it discusses demographic trends and the main types of mental illness in old age.

Largely written before the recent NHS White Paper, "The New NHS: Modern and Dependable", it anticipates many of its themes including the need for a "national reference framework" which is similar in concept to the White Paper's National Service Framework.

The backgrounds of the authors and advisory groups are more broad-based than in the case of the original report: this breadth is reflected in the emphasis on inter-agency and multi-disciplinary working.