Growing aging population will force all physicians of the health system to form in dementia.

-the world expert in mental health, William Reichman, explained the importance that will have the mental health of the elderly within the health system in the coming years

Bilbao, January 2012.- growing aging population oblige in a short period of time practitioners of mental health and the health professions in general to have a greater knowledge and training in patologíspecific ACE and characteristics of the elderly in order to ensure the quality of life for these patients.

These issues have been highlighted last Thursday during the day attention to mental health in geriatric population ” held in the Hospital de Basurto in Bilbao. The event was organized by the clinic progress (AMSA), the Department of neuroscience of the University of the country Basque UPV/EHU, and the aforementioned Bilbao hospital psychiatry service.

The day was directed by the President of the prestigious Institute of biomedical research on aging and brain function, Baycres, Dr. William Reichman, who is also Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto Faculty of medicine.

This expert of international reference in mental health in geriatric population and that has multiple publications in prestigious journals, was accompanied by the professor in Psychiatry at the University of the Basque country, José Guimón, an expert on mental health of the AMSA clinic; and the head of Psychiatry of the Hospital de Basurto, Miguel Angel Torres.

A remarkable example of the increase in the population is the demographic report of the Economic Council and Social Basque, which points out that the population of the Basque country of more than 79 years will rise even more sharply (38%) until 162.000 people, while instead, the collective of intermediate age decrease by nearly 60,000 (4% compared to 2008), by which health in old age will charge a great importance in short term.

In this regard, experts emphasize that psychiatric patients have increased their life expectancy dramatically in recent decades, and agree, moreover, that attention to the reagudizada or chronic severe mental pathology in geriatric age is increasingly ”.

Reichman explains this social change is a challenge for health care, which at the same time pushes us to work as a team and pay more attention to the activity of the medicine of attention primary. ”

for his part, Dr. Guimón stresses that with the aging of the world’s population have deteriorated or have appeared new mental disorders as anxious and depressive tables accented by the solitude; delusional symptoms and cognitive disorders with brain and environmental bases ”.

Dementias have more time to develop and just declining more or less severely the ability of the elderly to live independently, producing a significant burden on the family and society, which is why the role of the physician is essential ”, said the specialist.

On the other hand, the Chief of Psychiatry at the hospital de Basurto stresses which professionals have to take into account that we are going to work with patients with chronic patrologías, and are patients who have ill for years and have several illnesses simultaneously ”.

Thus, the expert points out that this situation makes the role of the family physician is still more important because it is who can make the overall Manager of the patient’s health. East challenge. The elderly patient requires us to work in team ”.

Reichman, during the Conference, has been put on the table emphasis ” that your medical team performs in the work of nurses, since, as points out, more than others, elderly patient is a patient requires careful attention to the care which is usually handled by nursing ”. If the work of nursing is key to all levels of health care, perhaps in elderly patients is much more important ”.