title: Psychogeriatric organization in the medico-social network: the experience of the canton of Vaud, Switzerland.
abstract: In Switzerland (7 million inhabitants), the organization of health care is in the hand of the cantons and not of the Confederation. The canton of Vaud (600,000 inhabitants), in the south-west part of the country, counts 4 psychiatric sectors, each with a psychogeriatric service. Otherwise the canton has 146 long-stay facilities with a total of 6,000 beds, of which 600 are for psychogeriatric cases. Home care is in charge of a network of 38 medico-social centres with multidisciplinary teams including psychiatric nurses. Several nursing homes, some specialized in psychogeriatrics, are equipped, besides long-stay beds, by units for temporary care, for medico-social emergencies and for medico-social observations. Moreover, in Lausanne (250,000 inhabitants) an 'Orientation Office of Medico-Social Emergencies', with psychiatric nurses, assumes emergencies at home and by-passes hospitalizations of medico-social cases in the General Hospital, by the resource of medico-social emergency beds in the nursing homes. The medico-social network thus designed in this way is profoundly permeated with the reality of psychogeriatrics.
authors.affiliation: University Psychogeriatrics Service of Lausanne, Switzerland.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wertheimer
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D019058:Community Networks / Q000458:organization & administration*; D003704:Dementia / Q000628:therapy; D006699:Home Care Services; D006801:Humans; D008134:Long-Term Care; D012947:Social Work / Q000458:organization & administration*; D013557:Switzerland