Healthcare Community - Regional Initiatives

Asia Pacific Initiative

Introduction to the Asia-Pacific Forum of IPA 

Demographic ageing has become an important issue worldwide and the impact is beyond reiterating. According to data from WHO, the Asia-Pacific region is the most rapidly ageing area in the world in the future 2-5 decades. However, most countries in this area are not yet well prepared for this challenge.

IPA has started an Asia-Pacific Regional Initiative group. There are unique problems in the Asia-Pacific region for the development of psychogeriatric services. First of all, the Asia-Pacific region has a marked diversity of cultures and languages. Even in a single country, such as Indonesia, Philippines or others, there may be many different languages and cultures, and these phenomena could create obstacles in establishing assessment tools, training service providers, making policies, and the implementation of the services in consensus. Secondly, the poor accessibility to information also impedes the development of psychogeriatric services. Finally, the lack of an efficient platform for communication makes the psychogeriatric professionals in this area more isolated.

The IPA Asia-Pacific Regional Initiative held a meeting on 21 September 2005 at the 12th IPA Congress in Stockholm. Fourteen representatives from various countries met and the following issues were proposed and discussed:

1. The research-related agenda, the calls for the attention from the governments, and the sharing of the study results / experience should be promoted.
2. An algorithm for the improvement of psychogeriatric development was proposed as a general guideline for the practice of this group.
3. The provision of educational information and material should be promoted and made more accessible to the public. The existing IPA educational materials and those developed by the countries in this region may be taken for reference or modified for local use.
4. Some countries had already established training programs, e.g. the fellowship program of the geriatric psychiatrist in Canada. The sharing of such experience may be arranged in the future meetings.
5. In order to enhance the communication and the sharing of all the information in an efficient and practical way, a platform for communication in the form of a message board or forum should be constructed and integrated into the new IPA website.

The IPA Asia-Pacific Forum is a place for sharing, discussing, and interacting for the members of IPA who would like to devote their efforts to the welfare of the older people in this region. We certainly hope that this is not just an ordinary forum in the sea of the Internet but the North Star in the dark sky guiding for better mental health for the elderly in this area.

If you wish to participate in the IPA-Asia Pacific Regional Initiative Web Forum, please click here.

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