Someone hit a nurse. One woman abruptly pinches another patient s face and yells curses. Another breaks into loud, gasping sobs for no apparent reason.
Agitation keeps still others awake all night.
A geriatric psychiatrist employed to care regu- larly for nursing home residents like these because he is specially trained in treatments to calm, even prevent, such problems. These are largely forgotten psy- chiatric hospitals. They are not in any way prepared to take care of .mental health problems, said Dr. William Reichman, president of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry. Many homes will seek special psychiatric consultations for a very ill patient, but that can take weeks. In one-fourth of rural nursing homes, directors reported that psychiatrists were never called to their facilities.