Kirsten
Abelskov, MD
(Denmark), Board of Directors
Kirsten
Abelskov, graduated from Åarhus University, Denmark, in 1969 and has been a
specialist in psychiatry since 1980. In 1984 she began as a psychogeriatrician
at the Psychiatric Hospital in Viborg, and joined the university team in
psychogeriatrics in Åarhus Psychiatric University Hospital in 1991. She is a
teacher in psychogeriatrics at Aarhus University Medical School. The first
challenge she met as a psychogeriatrician was conversion of a long-stay
psychiatric hospital with over 300 beds to an active psychogeriatric unit with
32 beds. At the same time, Dr. Abelskov was to develop the psychogeriatric
services in the catchment area.
Her special interests in psychogeriatrics are
diagnostic evaluations, behavioral and psychological signs and symptoms of
dementia (BPSD), affective disorders in the elderly, and psychopharmacotherapy,
and she has written some papers about these topics.
Since 1992 she has been the leader of the Danish
Psychogeriatric Association, which is related to the Danish Psychiatric
Association, and has planned the association’s two symposia each year. The
Psychogeriatric Association has grown from 12 members in 1992 to 81 today,
despite a lack of specialty recognition for psychogeriatrics in Denmark.
Dr. Abelskov is a member of several old age associations and
was elected to the Geriatric Committee, Danish Medical Association, in 1996.
She has been a member of the European Association of Geriatric Psychiatry
since 1995. A six-year member of IPA, she has attended several meetings and
all congresses since 1992. Dr. Abelskov was elected to IPA’s Board of
Directors in 1997 and is the IPA Bulletin’s assistant editor for
Denmark.
