A persistent infection had so debilitated the 81-year-old great-grandmother that she and her family were ready to move her to a nursing home. Betty Tesler remembers her mother-in-law being "psychologically, emotionally and physically depleted, and had it not been for Baycrest, she might not be here now."

Ida spent five weeks being evaluated and treated by an inter-disciplinary team in the Geriatric Assessment and Treatment Unit (GATU) and 12 weeks as an outpatient in the day hospital.

"GATU enables us to tease out all the factors contributing to a patient’s problems, to educate the patient and family about these factors and develop a corres-ponding treatment and discharge plan," explains medical director, Dr. Shelley Veinish. "The goal is to have people return to the community and reduce, if not eliminate, recurrent trips to hospital emergency departments or admission to acute care hospitals."

Today, back home and with her health greatly improved, Ida Tesler is smiling, confident and eager to get on with life.