Geriatric Mental Health Program

The Geriatric Mental Health Program is dedicated to the provision of specialized, interprofessional assessment, treatment, consultation, and follow-up services to older persons with mental health and addiction problems. The program accepts referrals of clients 60 years of age and older. A doctor's referral is not necessary to access program services.

 

Program Services:

Central Intake & Referral Service: To access any program service, you can contact the program's Central Intake. This service operates from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m, Monday to Friday. Calls are usually returned within 24 hours, except on weekends. The telephone number is 416-535-8501, extension 2875.

 

Inpatient Services:

Geriatric Admission Unit (GAU) and the Geriatric Continuing Treatment Unit (GCTU). Older clients requiring a hospital stay are admitted to the GAU. The focus of this unit is acute stabilization of psychiatric symptoms and active treatment utilizing approaches that integrate mental health and geriatric perspectives. Clients no longer in the acute phase of illness but still in need of hospitalization, are transferred to our continuing care unit (GCTU).

 

Outpatient Services:

The mandate of the GMHP's outpatient services is to maintain clients in the community for as long as possible, to provide specialized geriatric mental health consultation services to our community partners, and to assist the in-patient units by providing continuity of care to clients upon discharge.

PACE Clinics: Our interprofessional outpatient teams provide assessment, consultation and education services to the community. There are currently 3 PACE clinics (Pace Central/East, Pace West and Pace Peel). Two of our clinics also have Psychogeriatric Resources Consultants who provide a lot of case-based education to Long-term Care Homes and other community agencies.

Memory Clinic: The CAMH Memory Clinic accepts referrals of clients who specifically have concerns regarding their memory, irrespective of age. Typical referrals include those clients with potential neurodegenerative illness (mild cognitive impairment), early to moderate dementia, and people with schizophrenia who have cognitive impairment. For this service, physician referrals are necessary.

Contact: 416-535-8501 ext. 2875 (Program Office)

Location: Queen Street site, 1001 Queen St. West, Toronto

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