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.

Late-Life Mood Disorder Clinic: The late-life mood disorder clinic is a part of the PACE clinics. We provide psychiatric consultation for patients/clients who have had long standing mood disorders and are now over age 60 as well as those individuals who develop a mood disorder after the age of 60. The clinic has a particular interest in older persons with difficult to treat mood-disorders. The clinic is also involved in a number of research studies in which older clients may be eligible to participate.

Late-Life Schizophrenia Clinic (LLS Clinic): provides psychiatric consultation and treatment when needed for: (1) patients who have had schizophrenia or a related disorder since an early age and are now age 60 or above; and (2) patients who develop a psychotic disorder late in life. The clinic staff has also a number of special interests related to late-life psychosis including: comprehensive cognitive and functional assessments, brain imaging, genetics, and assessment of patients not on any antipsychotic or on more than one.

Cognitive Behavioral and Social Skills Training (CBSST): CBSST is an evidence-based group therapy that has been developed to improve social function in clinically stable older patients with schizophrenia or a related disorder. The groups meet once a week and the course of therapy is typically for 36 weeks.

Rapid Assessment Clinic (RAC): RAC is a clinic developed with the goal of providing psychiatric assessments of patients age 60 or above within 2 weeks of their referral and completion of the referral form. All patients are assessed by a geriatric psychiatrist or a psychiatrist-in-training under the supervision of a geriatric psychiatrist.

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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