IPA Press Releases

IPA Names New Directors

Northfield, IL USA, (12 September 2005) – The Board of Directors of the International Psychogeriatric Association appointed the following slate of officers, who will assume their new positions immediately following the IPA 12th Congress in September of 2005.

Jay Luxenberg, MD, United States
Dr. Luxenberg is an internist and geriatrician. He is the Director of Medical Services at the Jewish Home, San Francisco, which is a 450-bed Skilled Nursing Facility and Psychiatric Hospital.

After completing a fellowship in geriatric medicine, Dr. Luxenberg spent 1984-87 as a Medical Staff Fellow in the Section on Brain Aging and Dementia, Laboratory of Neurosciences, at the National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. He had a private practice of geriatric medicine from 1987-1996. Until 1996 he was also the Director of the Geriatric Medicine Fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Luxenberg is Clinical Professor, School of Medicine, U.C.S.F.

He is also currently the editor of IPA Online, the Web page of the International Psychogeriatric Association. His research interests relate to behavioral symptoms of dementing illnesses, and he is currently carrying out an NIH-funded project using bright light and melatonin to treat agitated behavior and day-night reversal in dementia.

Daniel William O’Connor, FRANZCP, Australia
Dr. O’Connor’s work is varied. He directs a clinical service; teaches undergraduate and postgraduate students, and supervises a small team of researchers. Recent research projects have addressed carers’ responses to the behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD); psychosocial treatments of BPSD; estrogen as a treatment of aggression in elderly men with dementia; psychiatrists’ choices of treatments of BPSD; memory and ECT, and service provision. As well, he is currently chair of the Faculty of Psychiatry of Old Age (FPOA), a part of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists. The Faculty represents over 200 old age psychiatrists and advocates on behalf of patients and carers. 

Anne Margriet Pot, Netherlands
For almost 15 years, Dr. Pot has combined clinical work with the elderly and educational and research work in the field of psychogeriatrics at the VU University Medical Center. She is currently the Head of the Program on Aging of the Netherlands Institute of Mental Health and Addiction and continues as staff member and senior researcher at the VU University Medical Center, Department of Nursing Home Medicine. 

Dr. Pot is chair of the Netherlands Society of Psychology and the Elderly (VPO) to stimulate education and research among geropsychologists in the Netherlands and is the first editor of a handbook on Geropsychology to be published in 2006 (Publisher: De Tijdstroom).

Kenneth Shulman, MD, SM, Canada
Dr. Shulman graduated from the Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto in 1973 and did postgraduate training in Psychiatry at the University of Toronto. He then went on to do specialty training in Geriatric Psychiatry in London, England where he was fortunate to be mentored by pioneers in the field including Tom Arie (service delivery) and Felix Post (clinical research). Since 1978, he has been based at Sunnybrook & Women’s in Toronto where he has been involved in the development of a comprehensive geriatric psychiatry service and academic program. In 1990, he completed a Master of Science in Health Policy and Management at the Harvard School of Public Health.

Dr. Shulman was recognized by the IPA in 1999 at the Vancouver Congress for contributions to the field of psychogeriatrics and joined the Board of Directors of IPA in September 2001. He hopes to encourage a multidisciplinary approach to the neuropsychiatric disorders of old age and facilitate the integration of complementary disciplines such as Neurology, Geriatric Medicine and Neuropsychology. He is currently the inaugural Richard Lewar Chair in Geriatric Psychiatry at Sunnybrook & Women’s, University of Toronto. 

Dr. Shulman was re-elected to the IPA’s Board of Directors.

Nicoleta Tataru, MD, Romania
Dr. Tataru is the Senior Consultant Psychiatrist at the Neurology and Psychiatry Hospital in Oradea, Romania. She graduated in medicine in 1969 from the University of Medicine, Timisoara, Romania. She worked as a general practitioner and between 1971 and 1974 completed her training in adult psychiatry at the Medical University, Bucharest Romania.

She is currently Senior Lecturer and Dean at FUKO University, Oradea, Department of Psychology. She is also lecturer for a postgraduate course for young doctors, psychiatrists and geriatricians training in Geriatric Psychiatry in Bucharest.

As the chair for IPA’s Eastern European Initiative, Dr. Tataru has organized an itinerant international course and a summer course in Romania on Geriatric Psychiatry, for psychiatrists from Eastern European countries.

Dr. Tataru was re-elected to the IPA Board of Directors. 

Bengt Winblad, MD, PhD, Sweden
Dr. Winblad graduated in medicine from University of Umeå, Sweden in 1971. He received his Doctor of Philosophy in 1975. He is professor of geriatric medicine and chief physician at the Huddinge Hospital, Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden since 1987.

Dr. Winblad is presently involved in an array of research activities that include a position as research director of the Stockholm Gerontology Research Center and serving as a reviewer of research centers in Europe and the United States. He is a past chairman of The Sandoz Foundation for Gerontological Research in Europe, 1994-1997. He was also a member of the Advisory Committee for the Medical Research Council from 1988-1995. His research interests include epidemiology of dementias, the clinical evaluation and treatment of dementia conditions, especially Alzheimer’s disease, and the molecular genetics, pathology, and biochemistry of dementias.

Dr. Winblad is Chair of the IPA 12th International Conference in Stockholm in 2005. He was re-elected to the Board of Directors.

The International Psychogeriatric Association (IPA) is recognized as the world’s leading multidisciplinary, not-for-profit organization providing healthcare professionals and scientists with current information about behavioral and biological geriatric mental health. IPA works actively to promote research in the field, and to facilitate international consensus and understanding in psychogeriatric issues.

For more information about IPA and its many programs and services, please contact Susan M. Oster, Executive Director of IPA at soster@ipa-online.org or +1.847.501.3310. Bookmark the IPA Website at www.ipa-online.org!