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The International Psychogeriatric Association (IPA) was founded 25 years ago as a multidisciplinary organization with the ambitious vision of improving the mental health of the elderly around the world. For a variety of reasons, some leaders were skeptical about the value of an international organization and it was the vision and energy of Dr. Sanford Finkel, together with a relatively small group of colleagues, who brought IPA to life and nurtured it through its infancy. Dr. Finkel, known to all as Sandy, has chronicled some of the history of IPA elsewhere and I won't repeat it here other than to emphasize the profound effect that IPA's first executive director, the dedicated and beloved Fern Finkel, had on IPA until her retirement in 2006. The importance of IPA as a leading professional organization is now well established, but beyond its many achievements in molding and guiding the profession, IPA is also a professional home for our members, a place of intellectual comfort where colleagues speak a common language and share common goals. Within IPA we can relax, share universal concerns for the ambivalently viewed population of elders that the world worries about but often avoids or ignores at the same time. We can share our challenges and they are many, our hopes, our successes and our uncertainties.
