IPA Bulletin
Editor's Note 

FROM THE EDITOR'S DESK

Richard Bonwick

Do not adjust your screens. No, you're right, I'm not David Folks. He has passed editorial duties on to his faithful assistant while he moves house. Good luck with the move, David. I hope all is going well and that you'll be back at the desk for the next edition.

By way of introduction, I am an old age psychiatrist from "down-under" - Melbourne, Australia to be precise. Melbourne has been voted the world's most livable city, is totally sports-mad (especially about a bizarre, local, football game called Australian rules, which climaxes with a Grand Final in late September), and is also the home of the current International Psychogeriatrics editor, David Ames.

Being from sports-mad Melbourne, which incidentally prides itself as multi-cultural and in particular has a massive Greek-speaking population, I greatly enjoyed watching the Athens Olympic Games in recent weeks. The success of our Australian team in so many sports was impressive, but it was the concept of participants from over 200 countries coming together in the peaceful pursuit of sport that made it such an arresting international event. The ideals of the Olympic movement have many parallels with IPA, which currently includes members from over 70 countries, together advancing the broad field of psychogeriatrics. We may not get the television coverage, but our work is more important!

If you want to visit the world's most livable city (and be introduced to Australian football), you should do so after attending the IPA regional meeting in New Zealand in April 2005. Our close Pacific neighbour, New Zealand is famous for 4 things: rugby union, dairy products, sauvignon blanc and excellent psychogeriatric conferences. The meeting is to be held in Rotorua, an other-worldy place with steaming geysers and bubbling sulphurous mud-lakes. Not to be missed! Conference chair, Pam Melding, updates us in the Bulletin.

A strength of IPA is its broad membership across the world. The contents of the Bulletin always reflect this. In this vein the current edition contains a very interesting review, by Dr Adel Al-Offi, of psychogeriatric services in the Kingdom of Bahrain. The National Committee for the Elderly, as described in the article, is an excellent example of the recognition in many countries of the imperative to focus on care needs of an increasing elderly population. One result appears to be the ongoing development of a multi-facetted, multi-disciplinary service contributing to the psychiatric needs of the elderly in Bahrain. Hopefully, this excellent contribution will stimulate those working in psychogeriatric services in other Arab-speaking countries, and across the globe, to tell of their important work..

IPA is not only geographically diverse, but individual members come from an array of disciplines working within psychogeriatrics. IPA is already developing special interest groups (SIG's) for nurses, social workers, psychologists and primary care physicians - all these can be contacted via IPA@ipa-online.org. Further SIG developments occurred at the recent IPA meeting in Chicago. Led by OT's from Iceland and Australia (how's that for geographical diversity) a group met to form an OT SIG. They are keen to hear from interested occupational therapists. See page 4 for details.

In a busy world IPA Bulletin can be a great time-saver in keeping up to date with the latest in psychogeriatric research. This edition has Janis Petzel's summary of the 9th International conference on AD, recently held in Philadelphia. If you didn't get there, you'll find the wisdom of 4300 researchers from over 50 countries can be yours without leaving your arm-chair. And if a broader psychiatric net is required the "usual suspects" - O'Brien, Barber, and Baldwin - have again summarised key findings in the current literature in their excellent, regular column, "Recent Advances". Both articles report on the ongoing development of a vaccine against amyloid, which continues to offer potentially exciting prospects for the prevention and treatment of Alzheimer's disease. Speaking of net, "On the Web" highlights two of my Aussie colleagues - Sharon Reutens reviews the e-accessable Whole Brain Atlas, and Brian Draper provides a comprehensive list of web-sites of particular relevance to old age psychiatry (a potentially useful addition to "internet explorer favourites").

All those in clinical practice within psychogeriatrics appreciate a good review article. "Depression in old age: co-morbid conditions and their management" provides an accessible summary of this important topic. In particular, I found the section on neurological disorders and their relationship with depression very informative, and potentially helpful in my frequent clinical encounters with these complex issues. An editorial plea to potential authors - more reviews of this sort please!

Many who know me would call me an unapologetic Anglophile, and I must confess a passing pleasure in most things British. The Poms (as we affectionately call them in Australia) have given so much to the world - cricket, postage stamps, parliamentary democracy …even Posh and Becks. Yet another British contribution is James Lindesay's "Culinary Corner". I had thought of sending him the famous Australian bush recipe for "boiled crow" - vigorously boil the crow with a large stone for 2 hours, then throw away the crow and eat the stone - but decided not. I'll leave it to those from around the world with a rich culinary heritage to offer James their favourite recipes.

There's also much more. Now settle back, turn the page and do enjoy the read.

Reprinted from IPA Bulletin, Volume 21, Number 3