Welfare Reform on the Web (February 2010): Care of the elderly - UK

Patients' and carers' journeys through older people's mental health services: powerful tools for learning

D. Doherty and others

Dementia, vol. 8, 2009, p. 501-513

Mapping the patient journey is a way of investigating the experiences of people using older people's mental health services. It enables patients and their families to tell their stories in a way that carries the potential for improving and developing the service. It also gives health and social care professionals an opportunity to understand how services work in practice for users. The West Midlands Older People's Mental Health Collaborative has encouraged the use of mapping by Collaborative teams in order to identify areas for improvement work.

Patients tube-fed 'to save staff time'

R. Smith

Daily Telegraph, Jan. 6th 2010, p. 1 + 2

A report by a Royal College of Physicians Working Party has claimed that busy hospital wards and care homes are unnecessarily feeding patients through tubes because staff do not have time to help them eat normally. Some care homes are said to be refusing to take patients unless a tube is fitted.

(See also Guardian, Jan 6th 2010, p. 1-2; Times, Jan. 6th , p.19)