What special training do geriatricians receive?

After earning their medical degrees, geriatricians complete a three-year residency program in either internal medicine or family medicine before entering a geriatric medicine fellowship program.

Through this training, geriatricians develop clinical competence in: the physiology of aging; illnesses common among older persons; atypical presentations of illnesses in older adults; the functional assessment of older people; the treatment and management of older adults in acute care, long-term care, community-based, and home-care settings; and the assessment of cognitive status and mood in the elderly. Geriatricians also have clinical training and experience providing care for persons who are generally healthy and require primarily preventive healthcare. In addition, their training highlights behavioral aspects of illness, socioeconomic factors, health literacy issues and ethical and legal considerations that may affect the medical management of older patients.

Geropsychiatrists complete a four-year residency program in psychiatry before entering a fellowship program in geriatric psychiatry.