THE QUALITY OF LONG-TERM-CARE FOR DEMENTIA - A SURVEY OF WARD ENVIRONMENTS

A survey of long-stay wards for elderly demented patients was carried out. The quality of five aspects of ward environment was assessed, cov ering institutional practices, social/recreational input, reality orie ntation cues, ward condition and space availability. Of the 28 wards s urveyed, two-thirds achieved high quality on one aspect but only two w ards had high quality on three or more aspects. In contrast, 14% of th e wards obtained low-quality scores on at least three aspects. A hospi tal trend was found for the variation in institutional care practices. The results have implications for staff training and for reprovision programmes.