The Geriatrics Psychiatry Department of Shanghai Mental Health Center was established in 1980 and is the earliest psychiatric subspecialty in China. In 2008, it was named as the first specialized disease diagnosis and treatment center of Shanghai Jiaotong Universty, which is "Alzheimer's Disease Diagnosis and Treatment Center". In 2022, it was rated as the "Core Advanced Cognitive Disorder Diagnosis and Treatment Center" by the National Health Commission Capacity and Continuing Education Center (the only approved psychiatric hospital in China), and was subsequently selected as the "Excellent Service Brand of Shanghai Elderly Friendly Medical Institutions". It was also awarded "National Excellent Memory Clinic" and "Memory Clinic Training Base". 

The department has 25 geriatric psychiatrists, including 10 with senior professional titles. Currently, the department has two elderly-specific outpatient clinics (including Memory Clinics and Geriatric Psychiatric and Psychological Counseling Clinic) in both Xuhui and Minhang districts, providing outpatient tertiary diagnosis and treatment services. The geriatric department has two geriatric wards (ward 3 and ward 15) in the Xuhui campus, with 144 fixed beds. The Minhang campus has four geriatric wards (A1, A2, A3, L2), with 280 fixed beds. More than 150 patients are admitted each month.

In 2023, the annual outpatient visits of our geriatric department exceeded 30,000. Our specialized outpatient clinic provides cognitive impairment screening, dementia typing, diagnosis and treatment of dementia-associated mental and behavioral symptoms, elderly depression and anxiety, cognitive impairment nursing, and rehabilitation training. In addition, a psychiatric nursing clinic for the elderly was also opened to provide nursing and mental health-related counseling services for family members.

The geriatric psychiatry department has made outstanding achievements in the field of cognitive impairment. It is the first institution in the country to open a memory clinic, and the first to carry out research on high-risk factors and intervention of Alzheimer's disease in the community. It has undertaken more than 30 national, provincial and ministerial-level research projects and international cooperation research projects. It has published 6 monographs and 6 patents. As a research team, it has undertaken over 30 domestic and international clinical trials of Alzheimer's disease drug. It has won the Science and Technology Progress Award of the Ministry of Health, the Science and Technology Progress Award of Shanghai, the National Science and Technology Progress Award, the Science and Technology Progress Award of the Ministry of Education, and the Popularization of Science Award of the Chinese Medical Association.

The team of geriatric psychiatry advocates the principle of "never too early, never too late" in the diagnosis and treatment of cognitive disorders. The team has innovatively proposed the SHAPE, "Shanghai Action to Prevent the elderly from dementia", hoping to provide practical and useful assistance for healthy aging.