IPA Bulletin
Editor's Note 

By David G. Folks

Greetings to all from Northern New England and Maine General Medical Center where I have been practicing for the past two years and serving as Chief of Psychiatry and Medical Director of Behavioral Health Services. This geographic area is not necessarily a haven for psychogeriatricians, as there are only two geriatric psychiatrists and a handful of primary care geriatricians for a 200-kilometer radius. Nonetheless, our two community hospitals are affiliated with Dartmouth School of Medicine and the Institution has operated a successful primary care residency program for more than a decade.

More recently, with the assistance of our local Veterans Hospital and community clinicians who focus upon our geriatric patient population (which is immense), we have managed to develop a geriatric fellowship program in primary care medicine. Dr. Janis Petzel, who is my lone geropsychiatry colleague, is providing the psychogeriatric teaching and serves as a mentor to the fellows, especially with regard to research and other scholarly activities.

I must confess that working in the community, as opposed to the academic health center, has provided me with a wonderful opportunity to see first hand what a few specialty trained, card-carrying geriatricians can accomplish with the help of local practitioners. The enthusiasm for the development of geriatric teaching programs and the appreciation for the clinical services provided are truly amazing. My experience here in a relatively rural setting has certainly affirmed the need for external support from our organization, International Psychogeriatric Association, as well as other resources that can provide a wealth of information and support through the World Wide Web.

The practitioners and educators in the community can benefit from the plethora of web sites that offer education and information through the internet. That is why I am excited that our President and the Board of Directors of IPA have made electronic communications a high priority. President Sadavoy has outlined his plans for IPA in this issue of the Bulletin. Clearly, as the initiative for the IPA Learning Portal evolves, and, as IPA’s Corporate Strategy thoughtfully develops, the impact to more remote areas such as the one where I currently practice can be tremendous.

I would encourage everyone to read Brian Draper’s segments of On the Web which always has an array of delightful sites reviewed and recommended for our members’ use in gathering information and searching the web. Moreover, many of the sites that Brian has recommended over the years have become like an old friend who you visit often and enjoy more as time goes by. I know this sounds a bit like recommending chicken soup, but the fact remains that the web and those sites relevant to our field are readily available to many of us that do not have the ability to rub shoulders with the giants of the field on a day-to-day basis.

In the meantime, now is the time to begin making plans for IPA’s next Congress to be held in Osaka, Japan, 14–18 October, 2007. This rendition will be the 13th annual Congress plus a celebration of IPA’s 25th anniversary, and the preliminary word/reading is that this meeting will set the benchmark by which all future IPA meetings will be measured. Seriously, I am anticipating that this meeting will be the meeting that must not be missed, and, you can be sure that this Congress will be blessed by a venerable who’s who of geriatric experts from a variety of disciplines. Please keep your eye on the IPA website for details, plan to submit an abstract to contribute to the proceedings, and do plan to attend.

See you there —

D.G. Folks

Reprinted from IPA Bulletin, Volume 23, Number 2