Lesson 1Documentation templates and medico-legal considerations for outpatient geriatric psychiatryLooks at useful ways to record notes for clinic-based mental health care for older folks, stressing clear writing, noting risks, capacity records, informed agreement, and legal protections to cut down liability and back up quality care that holds up.
Structuring the geriatric psychiatry noteDocumenting risk, capacity, and consentHandling late-life safeguarding concernsUse of templates and checklistsCommon medico-legal pitfallsCommunication with primary care and familyLesson 2Standardised screening tools: selection, administration, and scoringCovers picking the right screening tools, proper use, marking scores, and understanding them, noting culture, language, and sight or hearing issues, and weaving results into diagnosis thinking and regular check-ups.
Selecting tools by clinical questionStandardized administration proceduresScoring rules and cutoffsAccounting for education and cultureTracking change over timeCommunicating results to patientsLesson 3Assessing activities of daily living (ADL) and instrumental ADL (IADL)Sets out hands-on ways to check basic daily tasks and more complex ones, make sense of drops in ability, and connect findings to diagnosis, risks, and care plans, covering driving, money matters, and medicine handling.
Core ADL domains and rating scalesKey IADL tasks in late lifeLinking function to cognition and moodAssessing driving and community safetyFinancial and medication managementUsing functional data in care plansLesson 4Interpreting Mini-Cog, Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS-15), and Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) resultsGives step-by-step advice on using and understanding Mini-Cog, GDS-15, and MoCA, spotting limits, wrong positives and negatives, and blending scores with doctor judgement and info from others.
Administering the Mini-Cog correctlyUsing and scoring the GDS-15MoCA domains and scoring nuancesAdjusting for education and languagePatterns suggesting delirium or dementiaExplaining results to patients and familiesLesson 5Identifying atypical presentations: psychomotor slowing, apathy, and masked affectLooks at spotting unusual or quiet signs of mental health problems in elders, like slow movements, lack of interest, and hidden feelings, and telling them apart from normal ageing, low mood, memory loss, and medicine side effects.
Clinical features of psychomotor slowingDistinguishing apathy from depressionMasked affect and cultural factorsMedication and neurological mimicsUse of collateral to clarify changesImplications for diagnosis and treatmentLesson 6Comprehensive history taking: psychiatric, medical, social, functional, and medication reviewOutlines a planned, time-saving way to gather history from older people, mixing mental health, health, social, daily life, and medicine details, while handling time limits, thinking problems, and various sources in busy clinics.
Structuring the initial interviewEliciting psychiatric symptom historyMedical and neurological comorbiditiesSocial, family, and support contextFunctional status and role changesMedication and substance reviewLesson 7Assessment of sleep, appetite, weight change, and sensory deficitsGoes over steady checks on sleep, eating, weight shifts, and sense problems, pointing out their value in diagnosis, ties to mood and thinking, and practical tips for gathering history, measuring, and starting management.
Characterizing insomnia and hypersomniaAppetite and weight change patternsScreening for malnutrition and frailtyVision and hearing assessment basicsSleep, mood, and cognition linksWhen to refer for further evaluationLesson 8Focused physical and neurological exam elements for older adultsSums up key physical and nerve exam parts most useful for elder mental health, like walking, movement, senses, and shake signs, and how to note findings and know when to get more medical help.
Vital signs and general inspectionGait, balance, and falls assessmentScreening neurological examinationExtrapyramidal and tremor assessmentSigns of delirium and acute illnessWhen to refer to neurology or geriatricsLesson 9Collateral sources and interviewing caregivers: structured questions for daughters/partnersShows how to get and use extra info from carers, with set questions for daughters, partners, and others, while handling privacy, disagreements, load, and different views on the patient.
When and why collateral is essentialPreparing caregivers for the interviewStructured questions for daughtersStructured questions for partnersReconciling conflicting accountsAddressing caregiver burden and distress
