Geriatric Neuropsychiatry has showed considerable growth in developed countries since its beginnings around the middle of the last century. Population aging is a process that is especially accelerated in some parts of the world. Geriatric depression and dementia are age related. Argentina has one of the largest elderly populations in Latin America due to a life expectancy at birth of 73.9 years (World Bank, 2002). In Buenos Aires, the elderly constitute 20.6% of the population. According to the 2001 Argentinean National Census, 4.7 millions of the total population of 37.5 million persons is older than 60 years. Urban population was 88.3% of total. Adult Illiteracy rate was 3.1% in the population over 15 years old and 8.6% over 65. The Southern of America (Argentina, Chile and Uruguay) has to confront the population aging in the context of disadvantaged economies. We will discuss our mental health realties in aging patients and the challenger to develop Psychogeriatric programs in Argentina. General Practitioners consider cognitive symptoms and depression within the normal aging process and they do not perform a very meticulous study. The patients arrive too late to a specialized center. There is an uneven distribution of specialists (neurologists, psychiatrists and geriatricians) along the country, being most of them located within large towns, while there is a shortage of specialists in small towns and in the rural areas. The facilities needed for accurate diagnosis are scarce around the country, except within Buenos Aires and a few other large provincial cities. Few young physicians are properly trained, through the medical residency. There are few specialists trained in dementia. Only general neuropsychiatric facilities are available in the area. Training programs in Geriatric Neuropsychiatry are beginning to develop at National Universities. There are support groups to help family members but they are reluctant to use them. Clearly, more public education and programs with Psychogeriatrics for lay people are needed.
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