Reality orientation with psychogeriatric patients: the limitations

Address for correspondence: Edgar Miller, Department of Clinical Psychology, Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge CB2 2QQ, UK. An immediate problem with ’reality orientation’ is that it is an imprecise concept. It can be conceived narrowly as involving the kinds of procedure advocated by its originator, Folsom.l On the other hand, ’reality orientation’ is quite often used to refer to a much wider range of psychological or psychosocial procedures for the management of confused or demented elderly patients living in institutions. Thus, for example, the title of Holden and Woods’ book, Reality orientation: psychological approaches to the confused elderly,2 which covers a much wider range of procedures than those advocated by Folsom, and could give the reader the impression that reality orientation is a generic