The Interdisciplinary Team in Geriatric Care

Abstract

Clinical geriatrics and interdisciplinary team care approaches have coevolved during the past 30 years. It has become an article of faith in geriatrics that the goal of multidimensional health for frail elderly patients is most effectively pursued by the interdisciplinary health care team. Geriatrics team models have recently become increasingly differentiated, following secular changes in the health care system that promote community-based care and research findings supporting the efficacy of team-based geriatric services. This article describes a number of these diverse models and evidence of their efficacy and ventures some thoughts on the position of geriatric teams within the more general emergence of primary, managed care models of health services delivery.