A brief psychogeriatric assessment schedule. Validation against psychiatric diagnosis and discharge from hospital.

This paper represents part of an investigation designed to establish the validity of the Clifton Assessment Scale (a brief psychogeriatric assessment procedure) and the Stockton Geriatric Rating Schedule. One hundred consecutive admissions over the age of 60 were assessed soon after admission to the acute wards of a psychiatric hospital. The results indicated a close relationship between the scores and psychiatric diagnosis. Outcome was differentiated in terms of discharge home or of transfer to psychogeriatric and to other non-psychogeriatric wards, and significant differences were obtained between groups. The assessment procedure had predicitive validity comparable with other reported procedures, with the advantages of brevity and test acceptability for an elderly population.