IPA Bulletin 
Presidents Report - There is a Place for Everyone at IPA's Table

Edmond Chiu

The day before IPA’s Board of Directors met in Vancouver, Canada in August 1999, the Board held a strategic planning meeting under the able chairmanship of Professor James Lindesay. At this meeting many things were discussed with regard to future planning to fulfill the mission of IPA. What is closest to my heart as President is our commitment to have, as a priority, a role in assisting colleagues from less developed countries to be involved with the work of our organization.

This commitment will ensure that educational programs in the area of psychogeriatrics are planned and implemented in these countries. Further, IPA should place itself in the position as the leader in providing consultancy to governments in the area of psychogeriatric service delivery and expertise, by drawing upon the extensive talents of the membership.

To this end, IPA is preparing an ambitious educational program and seeking financial support from many sources for its implementation. On the service delivery front, the rejuvenated Service Delivery Task Force, under the able leadership of Kirsten Abelskov (Denmark) and Ajit Shah (United Kingdom), issued a brief questionnaire to the membership as an enclosure with the March 2000 IPA Bulletin. You also may have noted in the same issue that we are inviting members from financially advantaged countries to contribute towards the Sponsored Member Program, to assist our colleagues from less advantaged countries to become members and participate in our activities. Such activities are means to achieve the organization’s mission, and I would urge all members to participate fully in assisting IPA to move forward in these priority areas.

IPA is a multidisciplinary organization and, as such, has members from all major health disciplines, although the majority of them happen to be psychiatrists. It is hoped that in the not-too-distant future, IPA will develop discipline-related sections so there will be a role for all health care disciplines in contributing to the work of IPA. The idea of discipline-related sections arose out of a suggestion from a primary care physician during the Ninth Congress in Vancouver. This idea has considerable merit, and the Executive and Board will examine the ramifications, procedures, and structures needed to develop and include sections in many areas of IPA’s activities.

IPA’s recent Regional Meeting at Newcastle upon Tyne, in conjunction with the Faculty of Old Age of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, was planned under the able leadership of Professor John O’Brien and Professor Ian McKeith. This was an excellent meeting, being the second to be held in Great Britain (the first was at Cambridge under the leader-ship of Professor Sir Martin Roth). It was characterized by the excellence of its scientific content and warmth of hospitality. We hope that as a result of this meeting, our linkages with the Faculty of Psychiatry of Old Age of the Royal College of Psychiatrists will be considerably strengthened and that more British colleagues will become part of our organization on an individual level. IPA is now inviting national and professional organizations throughout the world to affiliate with us so that we may form cordial and collegiate relationships with all health care professionals in the world who have the well being of older persons at heart. If your own discipline organization is interested in this relationship, please contact the IPA Secretariat for further information. Members of IPA who have influence within those organizations may wish to take this invitation to them on our behalf.

We have planned meetings through to 2007. In a light vein, one may wish to borrow the old navy recruiting slogan, “Join IPA and see the world.” Our next meeting, “Mental Health in the Elderly: Transcultural Perspectives,” October 12-15, 2000, is being co-sponsored by the Brazilian Association of Geriatric Neuropsychiatry (ABNPG). Joao Carlos Barbosa Machado, president of ABNPG, will chair the meeting, which will present an opportunity to explore issues affecting the elderly with neuropsychiatric disorders worldwide. It promises to be  very important to the region. Please give serious consideration to attending this meeting in beautiful Porto Alegre, Brazil, where you will enjoy a stimulating scientific program with our colleagues in South America.

With so many meetings planned between now and 2007, we hope all members will have ample opportunity to participate in IPA activities, joining hands across the world with all workers in psychogeriatrics, sharing experiences, and developing collegiate relationships across national and discipline boundaries.

Those of you who, in addition to writing scientific papers for our journal, International Psychogeriatrics, may wish to share the experience of practice from your country, are welcome to make contributions to this Bulletin by sending your contribution to David Ames for publication.

The tone of this Presidential Message is to invite all IPA members to participate in their own way and make a contribution to the development of our organization. In addition to obtaining benefit from professional development and sharing knowledge with others, the aim is that older persons throughout the world will benefit from our activities. If you are at all committed to this goal, I urge you to read carefully about activities listed in each issue of this Bulletin and seek every opportunity to make your unique contribution.

Reprinted from IPA Bulletin, Volume 17, Number 2