IPA Bulletin
Editor's Note 

Psychogeriatrics is Good Medicine:
What a Relief It Is

David G. Folks

The most wonderful part of being a geriatric specialist is the sense of relief we often bring to our patients, their families, and our referring colleagues. Recent Advances in our field, which are carefully monitored by IPA Bulletin’s panel of John T. O’Brien, Robert Barber, and Robert Baldwin provide us with an ever expanding armamentarium of clinical management skills. Perhaps the most impressive achievement is the remarkable progress in diagnostic acumen. Patients, families and colleagues alike, really appreciate the efforts that go into careful diagnosis of cognitive impairment, behavioral and psychological symptoms, and other presenting syndromes. Indeed, it is a relief for many of our “customers” to know the root of the problem and the potential for a remedy or a strategy to better manage the problem at hand. Questions about new treatments, diagnostic techniques, or differential diagnosis can be addressed within the framework that constitutes psychogeriatric consultation and assessment.

Each quarter, this Bulletin highlights meetings, the scientific literature, and news items that are pertinent, and sometimes critical to our success with clinical practice, research design, or education of others about the field of psychogeriatrics. This issue covers newsworthy or noteworthy achievements in Hong Kong, Eastern Europe, and Korea, the latter being the site for our next regional meeting in Seoul to be held 8-11 September 2004, in cooperation with the Korean Association for Geriatric Psychiatry — “Mental Health of the Rapidly Aging Societies.”

For those who cannot travel to distant sites, the web provides “virtual travel” with IPA’s website offering a wealth of information and hyperlinks to a variety of essential sites within cyberspace. Brian Draper keeps IPA members and those who regularly read the IPA Bulletin well informed of different organizations and resources relevant to our patients and their families. In fact, this issue of the Bulletin includes web linkages to the European Union, Australia, and the International Society for Suicide Prevention. I would encourage you to travel to these sites and you will enjoy the benefits of virtual travel into some worthwhile territory (see page 11-12). With each issue of the Bulletin, bookmark the sites that are most useful to you, and in no time at all, you will have a substantial psychogeriatric resource at your fingertips thanks to the tireless efforts of Professor Draper.

These IPA resources, together with a growing body of knowledge in the field of psychogeriatrics, bodes well for our efforts around the world to influence direct treatment, care of the caregiver, and public policy pertinent to the aging population. Dissemination of information in small bits and pieces is a sensible approach to education of trainees, colleagues, and the public about how we might benefit those in need of psychogeriatric expertise. Moreover, translating research advances and new techniques to clinical practice is what our constituents really need and want. 

This concept of translational dissemination is in keeping with the mission of IPA, and is, in and of itself, a relief to all concerned. Our journal, International Psychogeriatrics, now under the capable leadership of David Ames, is also serving this mission representing the highest form of scholarship and scientific advancement. Overall, I am especially proud of the value that IPA brings to the psychogeriatric community in the form of news, scientific advancement, and leadership. IPA members, the most important ingredient of our organization, have unlimited opportunities to benefit from membership, all of which are highlighted at our own website.

If you have not visited IPA’s website recently, please do so at www.ipa-online.org and spend some time examining the contents, which I believe have substantially improved within the past 12 months. President George Grossberg welcomes you on behalf of IPA, and a variety of links are available to access publications, meeting materials, and timely information.

You may also want to consider Culinary Corner, compliments of Professor James Lindesay—I am especially fond of this issue’s recipe: Angel Shrimp Scampi. However, the list includes a delectable delight that will tantalize every palate—oh, what a relief it is.

Best regards,

David G. Folks

Reprinted from IPA Bulletin, Volume 21, Number 2