The geriatric institution as a therapeutic modality.

Geriatric centres complete with day-hospital facilities are essential for good care of the elderly. Institutions for the ill elderly should be upgraded to provide these people with the full range of services required as their diseases wax and wane. Within this community the resident could move as his needs altered, from minimal support in lodge-style accomodation, to continual "heavy" nursing in a hospital setting providing long-term care. Such a concept accepts that, in the elderly, as they age, new diseases develop that are often difficult to diagnose, and that they require diagnostic and therapeutic services of much greater range than is presently considered adequate in most institutions providing long-term care.