News

The Royal College of Psychiatrists has called on primary care trusts to carry out an audit of care in the community to find "forgotten" mental health patients.

The RCP believes thousands of over-65s suffering chronic mental illness are living in local authority, private sector and voluntary care homes without the knowledge of specialist mental health services.

It says some of the patients may have lost touch when they were released from psychiatric units under the care in the community programme in the 1990s. Other patients may have developed mental health problems while living in a home, but never received proper psychiatric treatment.

Dave Jolley, medical director of Wolverhampton Health Care NHS Trust, said many of these patients aren't getting adequate care. "First we need to identify where these people are, review how they're being treated and look at whether their needs are being met. Many of them have lost contact with their families and their physical health is poor."