By 1987, elderly patients comprised nearly one-fifth of all residents of state and county mental hospitals. During the past three decades, the deinstitutionalization movement has profoundly altered the care of elderly patients in state and county mental hospitals. In this task force report, leaders in the fields of geriatrics and long-term care present an overview of state-run mental hospitals. This report recommends the establishment of efficient, high-quality, and appropriately targeted state mental hospital services for elderly patients that will lead to the development of a comprehensive psychogeriatric care system.

State Mental Hospitals and the Elderly presents a review of the history and current status of care of elderly patients, the barriers that exist to improving psychogeriatric services, paradigms of psychogeriatric inpatient care, the role state hospitals play in the care of mentally ill elderly patients, the responsibilities of state mental hospitals for elderly patients with Alzheimer's disease and related disorders, training opportunities at state hospitals for residents and fellows in geriatric psychiatry, and recommendations for action needed to improve geriatric care for elderly patients.