Message at the workshop BIOPHILIA 2017 in Riga

Abstract

I am happy and honored to welcome prof. Takizawa and his colleagues from Japan and the colleagues from Poland in Latvia, in Riga Stradins University. We here in the Department of Psychosomatics and psychotherapy are very interested in the issue of healthy aging. We are convinced that older people must be able to access fully the services they are entitled to, and everything they need should be available to them. To help older people lead more independent lives, which in turn helps maintain good health, is highly important. The maintenance of optimal mental and physical well-being and function in older adults is most likely to be achieved when physicians have good knowledge and skills to help. Especially we would like to stress the importance of mental health in the healthy aging process. As we know from WHO statements, that mental health is crucial for maintaining somatic health.

It is unrealistic for us to expect that elderly people will not have diseases. We can however strive for that they enjoy a high quality of life. Therefore we are excited that prof. Takizawa is here in Riga presenting his "Takizawa's method".