International Psychogeriatric Association
12th  Congress
Stockholm, Sweden
20-24 September 2005

Aging with Dignity 
-new challenges  -new possibilities  -new solutions  

Welcome Message from the IPA President

Dear Colleagues...

As president of IPA, it gives me great pleasure to invite you to our 12th congress –”aging with dignity: – new challenges – new possibilities – new solutions”. The Congress will be held on 20–24 September 2005 in the beautiful city of Stockholm. This is a particularly good time to visit Sweden, being after the tourist rush and before winter. Our Chair of the Congress, Prof Bengt Winblad, and the Chair of the Scientific Committee, Prof John O’Brien, have put together an outstanding program. As you all know, an IPA Congress is an opportunity for health care specialists from all over the world to come together and share state-of-the-art advances in the field of mental health and aging. A Congress is also an opportunity to network, learn and problem-solve with colleagues of multiple specialties.

Attending an IPA Congress gives one an opportunity to interdigitate with distinguished leaders in the field, to seek their counsel, and to make lasting professional and social contacts. Profs Winblad and O’Brien’s theme of ‘Aging with Dignity’ is particularly apropos for our times. We are all captivated by the many ‘high-tech’ discoveries in our field. However, we do not want to lose sight of the importance of ‘high-touch’, the need to communicate with our patients, and families, and to always treat them with respect and dignity. The importance of “treating the patient, not the lab.”

The 12th Congress of IPA should be a landmark event featuring the ‘best and the brightest’ of our field. It will also be an event where many seminal research findings will be first presented. I look forward to personally greeting all of you in Stockholm and wish you safe journeys.

George Grossberg
IPA President

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