​Dear Colleagues,

I wanted to draw your attention to the work on delirium that is going on at UHN.  As many of you know, delirium is something that any patient can experience for a variety of reasons including infection, medical illness, surgery, trauma, or reactions to medication.  Elderly patients are particularly vulnerable and delirium can have an effect on how an individual responds to care and how the recover.

Next week is Delirium Awareness Week and I thought it was an ideal time to raise this issue and talk about what we are doing at UHN to address it and recognize what we can do to lessen the incidence of delirium for the people who come to us for care.  The link (Delirium Awareness Week) will take you to a short summary of some of the work that has been done, some of the research in to the subject and the dates and locations in the hospitals where you can get more information.

The research tells us that 70% of all ICU patients experience delirium – which is staggering.  While I know that we can't eliminate this response, there is much we can do to lessen it, which will be of benefit to our patients and to our health care professionals who often must cope with delirium in a patient and all of the attendant difficulties that delirium brings.

Bob​

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