1. Take a history from an older person presenting with depressive symptoms.
2. Take a collateral history from the family/carer/or informant of an older person presenting with depressive symptoms, and understand its importance.
3. Identify symptoms required to make a clinical diagnosis of depression (based on the DSM IV diagnostic criteria).
4. Establish a differential diagnosis for an older person presenting with depressive symptoms.
5. Plan initial investigations to help eliminate other causes of depressive symptoms and to help establish the likely depression type.
6. Plan, conduct and interpret a mood assessment. Understand the advantages and disadvantages of assessment tools in depression.
7. Be able to communicate a diagnosis of depression and the implications to the patient and their family/carers.
8. Create a treatment and management plan.
9. Learn and use effective communication skills to help interactions with patients, families and carers.
10. Understand the usefulness of a long term care plan in the management of depression.
11. Explore multidisciplinary care in the management of depression and develop an understanding of how to access these services.
12. Identify difficulties faced by depressed people in accessing care and support services and how this might be overcome.
