Meeting Report
Ninth Congress An Event To Remember

"Challenges for the New Millennium: Professional, Cultural and Regional Diversity," IPA’s Ninth Congress, opened with pomp and ceremony highlighted by First Nations dancers, a talking stick presentation, an impressive visual display of names of all the countries represented at the Congress, and an enthusiastic welcome by British Columbia’s charismatic Lieutenant-Governor, Garde B. Gardom. With attendance by more than 1800 individuals from nearly 50 nations, the Congress, convened in beautiful Vancouver August 15-20, was the largest psychogeriatrics meeting ever assembled.

“Living longer is great – but living better is best,” said Lt.-Gov. Gardom in his remarks to the IPA delegates, whom he acknowledged as “trailblazers…fighting some of the most punishing and debilitating diseases known to man. Providing hope, providing assistance, providing means of alleviation and, before too long, cures. Our hats are off to you…What a credit you are to this century.”

The organization is indebted to Board member and Congress Chair Joel Sadavoy, Organizing Chair Lilian Thorpe, Scientific Chair Nathan Herrmann, as well as all their committee members, for their tireless dedication and commitment over the past several years to ensure such an outstanding meeting. The result of their efforts will resonate with all who attended for a long time.

During the Opening Plenary, distinguished colleagues Tom Arie, Sanford Finkel, Kazuo Hasegawa, Joel Sadavoy, Kenneth Shulman, and Jean Wertheimer were announced as recipients of IPA’s 1999 Field and Service Awards. The session also featured presentation of the 1999 IPA/Bayer Research Awards in Psychogeriatrics by Barry Reisberg, Chair of the Research Awards Committee. The winners, who read their papers following the presentation of their awards, are Jürgen Unützer (USA), First Place, Sarvada Chandra Tiwari (India), Second Place, and Linda Gerdner (USA), Third Place.

Scientific presentations throughout the Congress were rich in content and diversity, and representative of work being done in the field around the world. Four well-attended Pre-Congress courses, offered one day before the opening plenary, provided expert presentations on basic and advanced psychogeriatrics, research, and a multidisciplinary approach to the care of people with severe dementia. Abstracts from the Congress will soon be published as a supplement to International Psychogeriatrics and are now available on IPA’s web site. A comprehensive report on the scientific content of the entire Congress will be published in the December issue of the newsletter.

Reprinted from IPA Bulletin, Volume 16, Number 3