PSYCHIATRIC ASSESSMENT OF ELDERLY IN TAIF, SAUDI ARABIA

Background: The world is aging with people living longer and fewer children being born. Today, there are some 800 million persons aged 60 and over; this total will double by 2050 when there will be more people aged 60 and over than children under age 15. Psychiatric geriatric assessment attempts to obtain a "big picture" in order to provide quality care for the elderly. Serve as a baseline from which to measure outcomes of treatment. Methodology: The study was conducted from 150 ambulant apparently healthy patients (>65 years old) attending the family outpatient clinic in Prince Mansour Hospital for community medicine in Taif city, in March 2018 To determine if the psychiatric geriatric assessment can detect new unknown problems in general practice. Results: 38 % of the studied elderly have disturbance mood mostly depressive according to the used screening test, 51.3% of the studied elderly have cognitive impairment according to the used screening test (3 item recall test), 32.6 % of studied elderly were liable to fall according to the used screening test, 25.3% of the studied elderly have unsafe Home regarding the troubles either inside or outside home (e.g light, stairs), and 8% of the studied elderly had reduced abilities in basic activity of daily living. Conclusion: Development of a new psychiatric assessment sheet based on the elderly needs and the developed practice guidelines to be strictly followed and adequately implemented.