In 1975, my colleague, mentor and friend Dave Jolley, who has died aged 79, established one of the first dedicated old age psychiatry services in the UK – in south Manchester.
The service, under Dave’s leadership at Withington hospital, made no assumption of a slippery slope of mental decline in old age – mental health disorders were seen as treatable and reversible until proved otherwise – and, even then, ameliorative support was offered.
Patients were assessed and followed up in their own homes, as well as at inpatient and hospital day facilities, with attention paid to the overlaps between social factors and mental and physical disorders in older people. As a result the service gained a national and international reputation, and served as a model for similar ventures.
Born in Wolverhampton, to Hilda (nee Cooke), a housewife, and James, a storeman with British Oxygen, Dave went to Wolverhampton grammar school and then qualified at Guy’s hospital, London.
His first job, in 1969, was as a house physician at St Mary’s hospital on the Isle of Wight, but by the following year he was training in psychiatry at the University Hospital of South Manchester, and in 1975 he was appointed as a consultant psychiatrist there, with responsibility to provide services for older people.
After 20 years in Manchester he moved to Wolverhampton health care NHS trust, becoming its medical director and setting up a psychiatry service along similar lines to the one he had created at Withington hospital. He was also made honorary professor of psychiatry at Wolverhampton University.
In 2003 Dave retired from full-time NHS work for health reasons, but continued part-time in various posts in Staffordshire and Greater Manchester, including as an honorary consultant at Willow Wood hospice in Ashton-under-Lyne (2010-15) and as a locum at Wythenshawe hospital (2015-17). From 2006 to 2022 he was an honorary reader in old age psychiatry at the University of Manchester.
Over the years Dave contributed to national policy and practice decision-making on old age psychiatry through writing academic papers, advising various NHS trusts and by sitting on a number of committees, including the Royal College of Physicians’ working party on services for older people with mental disorders, of which he was secretary in 1989, and as chair of the section for old age psychiatry at the Royal College of Psychiatrists (1990-94).
Dave’s dedication, energy, humility and humanity inspired many people in his profession, including me. He also motivated people in his local community in Altrincham, Cheshire, where he was made a freeman earlier this year. In retirement there he volunteered as an assistant steward and worship leader at Bowdon Vale Methodist church.
As honorary secretary of the Friends of John Leigh Park in Altrincham from 2014 to 2023, Dave was involved in many activities in the park, including daily maintenance of an aviary that was saved from closure by the local council, and leading weekly health walks for the public.
He is survived by his second wife, Susan Hodgson, whom he married in 1985, and their daughters, Emily and Sarah; three children, Ben, Kate and Esther, from his first marriage, to Janis O’Connor, which ended in divorce in 1984; two grandchildren; and his brother, Malcolm.
