Practical Psychiatry in the Long-Term Care Home

This is a wonderful text for medical and non-medical staff working in long-term care settings. I know of no other single source manual which is so comprehensive in range, yet so easy to read and access critical information. The successful previous edition has been revised and interesting new chapters on topics such as group psychotherapy and sexuality have been added. --Bruce G. Pollock, MD, PhD, FRCPC, President Elect, American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry; Professor & Head, Division of Geriatric Psychiatry, University of Toronto.

This work has evolved over a number of years. The text is clear, clinically relevant, and in many ways fulfils Ira Katz s description of the Handbook in the foreword, as a toolkit. The book is very well laid out and a pleasure to read, with the text broken in many places by key points, tables, and case illustrations. The writing style is clear and remarkably consistent given that this is a multi-authored text... there is something for virtually every practitioner in this book --DAN G. BLAZER MD, PhD, is JP Gibbons Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC., excerpts from a book review published in the Journal of Psychiatric Practice, September 2008

The first edition of David Conn et al. handbook for staff concerning nursing home psychiatry, was published in 1992. It had 14 chapters and was good. A revised and expanded edition came out in 2001, and now we have a third, the title being slightly changed each time. Again, and to great advantage (especially in relation to the excellent case illustrations and family information sheets), the book has increased in length. There are now 20 chapters with a foreword.Surely A 'Practical Psychiatry in the Long-Term Care HomeA ' will be regarded as an essential resource in nursing homes and other aged care facilities all over the world. I have read or delved into a number of books concerning mental health problems in nursing homes and how staff can best cope with them. This beautifully presented offering is the most comprehensive, readable and useful. I agree with Ira Katz when he says in the foreword that everyone working in nursing homes and long-term facilities (including nurses, nursing aides, social workers, administrators and even non-clinical staff) should learn about mental health. As he says: It is possible for nursing home residents to lead a good life, in spite of their illnesses and disabilities, if their mental health needs are met. Sadly, mental health needs are commonly overlooked or are addressed inadequately, which is why the International Psychogeriatric Association has formed a Task Force to foster radical improvement. This book, if used widely and appropriately, will help to catalyse change.Another group who will benefit by accessing the book will be the primary care doctors who have overall clinical responsibility for long-term care (LTC) residents. Much in these pages may be known to them only superficially at present. There is excellent discussion about behaviour management strategies, psychopharmacology, personality types, and interventions to deal with depression and other mental disorders. I think more detail on dementia (particularly fronto-temporal dementia) would have been warranted, and some of us would quibble with using the terms 'clinical depression ' and 'major depression ' interchangeably. There are differences between and within countries regarding alcohol use and resident involvement in decision-making in LTC facilities, yet there is little in the book that will not be useful for discussion and in education around the world. --Reviewed by John Snowdon in International Psychogeriatrics 2008