GROUP PSYCHOTHERAPY WITH GERIATRIC PATIENTS IN A VETERANS ADMINISTRATION HOSPITAL

Abstract

The geriatric patient-60 years of age and older has become a very great problem within psychiatric institutions. With the increasing life expectancy in the world of today, the number of geriatric patients in all branches of medicine continues to increase.

According to statistics of the Federal Council on Aging, there are more than.22 million veterans of World War I and II. In 1960, there were more than one million and a half veterans, 65 years of age and older. According to the census at the Veterans Administration Hospital, Coatesville, Pennsylvania in January, 1961, 38% of the patients were veterans of the First World War and were over 60 years of age. Most of the psychiatric patients in this age group are chronic schizophrenics, while the number of acute brain syndromes is relatively small. Many of our schizophrenic patients however also suffer from a chronic brain syndrome due to senility or cerebral arterio- sclerosis or other causes superimposed on the schizophrenic process for which they were hospitalized.