Objective: To review the current practice and future development of higher specialist training in geriatric psychiatry in the Netherlands.
Design: Review of the literature about the development of geriatric psychiatry as a specialty in service delivery and specialist training programs in the Netherlands.
Materials and Methods: Documents obtained from the Section of Old Age Psychiatry of the Dutch Association of Psychiatry and from the Specialist Training Authority were used to describe the development of (formal) requirements for geriatric psychiatry specialist training.
Results:
1. Specialist services in geriatric psychiatry are widespread in the Netherlands.
2. No formal certification of subspecialties in psychiatry exists in the Netherlands.
3. Core knowledge of and skills in geriatric psychiatry have been included in the requirements of the 3-year basic specialist training program.
4. Following the basic specialist training, geriatric psychiatry may be chosen as one of the 3 half year training placements.
5. Consensus is growing that subspecialties in psychiatry are necessary, with geriatric psychiatry being the least controversial.
Conclusion: Although subspecialization in mental health care services with separate facilities for the elderly is widespread in the Netherlands, concomitant subspecialization in the specialist training of psychiatrists is absent. This is in line with the absence in the Netherlands of any sub specialization in the specialist training of psychiatrists. Age-related specific needs of patients (both children and elderly) and the growth of the field of geriatric psychiatry have contributed to a growing consensus that in the (near) future the basic specialist training should be followed by training programs focusing on and resulting in certification in a subspecialty (resembling the specialist training in psychiatry in the UK).
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