David Ames is retiring as editor after more than five years
and 19 issues of this publication. This is his last issue.
I was not quite sure what to think in the autumn of 1996
when Raymond Levy buttonholed me at the Institute of
Psychiatry, where I was enjoying a six-month sabbatical,
to ask if I would be the next editor of the IPA Bulletin.
However, one thing I could not think of was an excuse.
So, a few weeks later, I found myself voted in at the
October IPA Board meeting in Iceland! Luckily, Co Bleeker
was handing over an already excellent product, and there
were one or two pieces already awaiting publication in the
June 1997 issue, which would be the first to appear under
my editorship.
Now, as I write my 16th editor's note for the 19th and last
IPA Bulletin for which I will be responsible a lot of water
seems to have flowed under the bridge. (John O'Brien did
two editor's notes while I prepared for the Lorne Regional
meeting and, of course, Lucy Ames tossed off a cavalier
piece a few issues back.) I did not even have e-mail in
1996, but now every facet of preparation is done and communicated
by electronic means. There were no assistant
editors in 1996 and now they generate nearly all the copy.
We were a twice-yearly organ in 1996 but since 1997,
thanks to sponsorship and the IPA’s improved financial
health, we now communicate with the membership four
times a year.
It is for others to judge how well the IPA Bulletin has met
the needs of its readers over the last five-and-a-half years.
I have been pleased with the quality of copy, which has
flowed from several innovations. First and foremost, my
deputy John O'Brien and the other editor of "Recent
Advances," Bob Barber, have provided a quarterly stream
of research updates without which I would struggle to
keep up to date. So much research is published and it is
such a challenge to separate the wheat from the chaff
that without such a service it would be impossible to stay
abreast of important developments in our field. John and
Bob are happy to continue to supply
this service for the present, and I
know they will be a great support to
David Folks, our new Bulletin editor.
John is stepping down as deputy editor
to concentrate on his many other
responsibilities, but I doubt that IPA
has seen the last of this energetic and bright young academic.
I am deeply indebted to John for his constant sup-port
and assistance in my editorial role.
We are nothing if not a multicultural organization.
Though IPA espouses no particular religious or political
line, understanding of others' strongly held beliefs is
essential if we are to work together and care for our
patients in the multicultural societies where most of us
reside. This issue carries a piece on Catholicism written by
my wife (originally Dina LoGiudice was to be a co-author,
but the two of them decided that Sicilian and Irish
Catholicism would need two separate articles to do them
both justice!), which is the last "Religions of the World"
piece that I have received. We have the promise of an
exposition of Greek Orthodoxy to come. I have learned
much from this occasional series and hope that future
authors willing to address religions not yet profiled will
volunteer their services.
It was Raymond Levy's recipe for Almodrote de Berenga
that got culinary corner off the ground in 1997, after he
presented it to the Congress audience in Jerusalem that
year. James Lindesay has done a super job of recipe collation
since, and we have now published something from
each inhabited continent (but no recipes for penguin stew
from Antarctica have been received!). There were times
when I thought we might be short a recipe and I would
have to trot out the one I have for boiled galah. (Boil a
galah and a stone in a billy can until the stone is tender,
then throw away the galah and eat the stone.) But James
always came up trumps at the last minute. Please keep
the recipes flowing in.
Early in my career, my mentor was Professor Brian
Davies, foundation professor of psychiatry at the
University of Melbourne. One of the many lessons I
learned from him was the art of delegation. My aim
always is to delegate everything except the power of
delegation so others do all the work and I can concentrate on important things like opera. Thus it should
surprise nobody that one of my earliest acts was to
appoint assistant editors for individual countries and
disciplines whose job it would be to ensure a regular
flow of copy to my office. This innovation exceeded all
expectations and we have regularly been in the position of having too many articles for each issue and
several banked up for the next before the deadline for
receipt has passed. I am grateful to all the assistant
editors, but (perhaps invidiously) will single out Don
Williams for his continuous flow of news and articles
from the UK, Peggy Szwabo for supplying regular articles on nursing issues, and Brian Draper for coming
out of the woodwork to be assistant editor for Internet
matters. Brian did such an innovative and thorough
job that I was having to hold over copy within three
months of appointing him. (Sorry, Brian!).
There is no point doing a job unless you like the people you work with. I knew I got on well with Yvonne
Liddicoat, my tirelessly hardworking secretary, before
she started to double as editorial assistant on the IPA
Bulletin. We had already worked together for more
than seven years by that time. Getting to know and
work with the indefatigable Dottie Zoller and, later, the
enthusiastic Di Nickolson was one unexpected bonus
of accepting the editorial role. I do not know how I
would have managed in the early days without
Dottie's organizational know-how and her unerring
sense of what would "play in Peoria." Of course, the
other secretariat staff have been very helpful, and Fern
Finkel, our executive director, has been a great supporter
of the Bulletin.
Regrets? I've had a few! I wish that some of you were
less conciliatory and a bit more argumentative! We
have had some provocative contributions to the occasional "point of view" column, but even the most
extreme sentiments failed to excite the sort of heated
correspondence I had hoped for. There being only 24
hours in the day, being editor has to some degree
affected my productivity in other areas. Perhaps I
would have a dozen more peer reviewed publications
if I had not taken the job, but I doubt that I would
have had half the fun preparing them that being first
to see the Bulletin contributions has given me.
I hope that the contents of this issue will sustain the
interest of our readership, and that all of you will support
my successor as you have assisted me. With the
ongoing help of the membership and board of directors,
David Folks should find as I have, that editing
IPA Bulletin is not a chore but a joy!
David Ames, Department of Psychiatry, 7th Floor,
Charles Connibere Bldg, Royal Melbourne Hospital,
Parkville, Vic 3050, Australia, dames@unimelb.edu.au.
-----------------------------
David Ames
Reprinted from IPA Bulletin, Volume 19, Number
1
Copyright 2012 International Psychogeriatric Association
