Author Archives: Sofie Manetta

Symposium on Saturday the 17th of September 2016 in Hamburg. Germany

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You are cordially invited to attend a Symposium on Saturday the 17th of September 2016 in Hamburg, Germany. 
As all of you are aware the numbers of people who are forced to migrate to safer places are very high and there are serious concerns about their psychosocial and mental health conditions. As professionals dealing with these important aspects of health we have to do our utmost best to be effectively active to prevent and  alleviate suffering. Therefore we organize a special meeting with the theme:
 ‘People on the Move; Asylum Seekers and Refugees‘.
The aim of the meeting is : To exchange facts and ideas on mental health issues related to the high influx of refugees  in a wide range of countries in the Middle east and Europe, and to discuss (and document ) how issues could be improved.
To accomplish this aim a range of speakers and organizations is invited to present. Representatives from the following countries have confirmed their readiness to contribute with a presentation about the situations and interventions in their respective country : Syria, Turkey, Germany, The Netherlands, Denmark, the UK and Sweden, Finland, and Norway. Invitations are pending to colleagues from  Spain, Italy and Austria
Nana Wiedemann Federation of the Red Cross and the Red Crescent Societies is the keynote speaker in the morning session and invitation has been send to other organizations.

Location: University of Hamburg Eppendorf (UKE),

Accomodation recommended : Baseler Hof Hotel, Esplanade 11, 20354Hamburg,

The meeting will be held from 9.00 till 17.00 o’clock.

The fee for participation is 50 euro, to be paid at arrival. The number of participants is limited to 100
Please send your REGISTRATION as soon as possible to the secretary of the section : prof dr Joseba Achotequil: jachoteguil@gmail.com
Looking forward to your presence and active participation at this important Symposium. You will return home with a lot of knowledge about how to deliver mental health care to refugees even better.  You can gather information about failures and successes from a wide range of mental health professionals from different countries.  
 
On behalf of the organizing committee
Kees Laban, Chair World Psychiatry Association- Section Transcultural Psychiatry (WPA-TPS)     http://www.wpa-tps.org/news/ 
 
Other members of the organizing committee : Meryam Schouler-Ocak, Sofie Baarnhielm, Marianne Kastrup
Ps This symposium was first scheduled as pre-congress meeting of the WPA international Congress in Istanbul, july 2016. Unfortunately this Congress had to be cancelled. We are very glad and thankful that the Turkish-German Association for Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosocial Health (DTGGP) is willing to host this symposium at their congress.
This is a Joint Symposium of Section on Transcultural Psychiatry of WPA, Cultural Psychiatry of EPA and Intercultural Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Migration of DGPPN and the DTGPP.

6th Conference on Psychology and Social Harmony, Suzhou, China- July 27-29 2016

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The 6th Conference on Psychology and Social Harmony (CPSH 2016)
July 27-29, 2016     Suzhou, China
Dear Colleagues,
We are pleased to inform you that The 6th Conference on Psychology and Social Harmony (CPSH 2016) will be held from July 27 to 29, 2016 in Suzhou, China. If you are interested in the conference and have the idea of making our conference a vehicle for your research interests, please submit your manuscripts to this conference through paper submission system without hesitation.
About CPSH
This symposium will focus on Cognitive Psychology, Educational Psychology, History of Psychology, Media Psychology, Personality and Social Psychology , Cognitive Psychology, School Psychology , Psychology of Women , Sport Psychology, Consulting Psychology, Physiological Psychology and provide a platform for the attendees to exchange their research results. It dedicates to creating a stage for exchanging the latest research results and sharing the advanced research methods. For detailed information, please visit:www.psychconf.org/2016/.
Sponsors
– Engineering Information Institute
– Scientific Research Publishing
– 1000 thinktank
Call for Special Session Chair
The conference is approaching. To extend the influence of the conference, researchers within the field of the conference are invited to be the special session chair. If you are interested in the matter, please contact us. The Organizing Committee will fully support the promotion of the conference.
Yours sincerely,
CPSH Organizing Committee

HHRI Newsletter #4, June 2016

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Welcome to Health and Human Rights Info (HHRI) Newsletter June 2016
HHRI provides information on mental health and human rights violations		 View this email in your browser

NEWSLETTER NO.4 June 2016

Puede encontrar la version en español aqui. 

Overview of content:

  • Supporting victims of torture and their families – life after torture
  • Further reading that highlight different aspects of life after torture
  • Award to Diana Kordon from EATIP, Argentina
  • Upcoming events

Supporting victims of torture and their families -life after torture  

The 26th of June is the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture. One of the themes this year will be on Life after torture. This important topic is raised by the IRCT. A number of institutions and organizations all around the world will mark this day with activities and information with a view to strengthen the combat against torture and in particular, strengthen international attention on rehabilitation and recreating life after torture. In this newsletter we will present some links that touch upon ways of helping families living with torture survivors and ideas as to how they can manage and deal with daily life and all the challenges that a family may encounter. Torture, as is well known, affects the individual as well as the family in many ways.

There is not much literature on how life in families develops in the after math of torture. There has been some research on family therapy with refugee families (Sveaass & Reichelt, 2001), and some studies based on families where member have disappeared, such as Paz Rojas’ book on “La interminable ausencia. Estudio médico, psicológico y político de la desaparición forzada de personas” (only in Spanish). Other studies and reports have dealt with consequences of severe human rights violations for family life.

But there are far more publications that may be very relevant in this context, based on experiences of living in families where one member is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Many who have survived torture develop different types of post-traumatic reactions, and many develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). And as referred to above, severe reactions associated with traumatic events will of course affect the entire family.

We have focused on links that give the survivor tools to handling everyday life, how to raise children, how to keep your relationship/marriage going, how to sleep at night, how to keep your job and aging with torture memories. We hope that it might help survivors gain more knowledge and to come to terms with their experiences, with their haunting memories and build new lives. For more information about torture and for PTSD go to our thematic pages.

Further reading that highlight different aspects of life after torture 

(more links here)

  • A new generation: How refugee trauma affects parenting and child development            E. van Ee 2013, A thesis covering different aspects of life after torture, as relationship between parents and child and broken relationships.
  • Politically-motivated torture and its survivors – Social, familial, and societal sequelae       J Quiroga, J. M. Jaranson Torture Journal 2005 2/3 IRCT page 27 and onwards. The social and economic consequences of torture have rarely been systematically studied. This is important for the less industrialized countries as well as for host countries providing asylum to large numbers of tortured refugees.
  • Cross cultural medicine – working with refugee survivors of torture B. Chester et N. Holtan 1992 Numerous factors must be taken into account to best provide for the health and well-being of refugee patients in developed countries. One issue that is rarely considered is the awful and not uncommon occurrence of political torture. Large numbers of refugees and other displaced persons are survivors of political torture. To facilitate the “re-making” of a survivor’s world, the health care professional must recognize the multifaceted effects of torture and displacement on the individual, family, and community.
  • Disclosure and silencing: A systematic review of the literature on patterns of trauma communication in refugee families   N.T. Dalgaard et E. Montgomery 2015 This systematic review aimed to explore the effects of different degrees of parental disclosure of traumatic material from the past on the psychological well-being of children in refugee families. A majority of studies emphasize the importance of the timing of disclosure and the manner in which it takes place, rather than the effects of open communication or silencing strategies per se.

Award to Diana Kordon from EATIP, Argentina

A health professional that for many years has been doing an incredibly important work in relation to assistance to torture victims, family of the disappeared, train helpers, raise awareness and has constantly been struggling against impunity, is the Argentinian psychiatrist Diana Kordon. She has recently been given the Barbara Chester award. For four decades, Dr Kordon has provided psychological services to the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo and others affected by atrocities committed by the military dictatorship in her country.

Upcoming events

We appreciate feedback and commentsThe Health and Human Rights Newsletter is an electronic newsletter launched by HHRI with an aim to give insight to a certain subject in the cross section of our work; human rights violations in war & conflict areas and mental health. Our intention is to form the newsletter as a short “lecture” where you can find relevant information regarding a specific subject with a mental health perspective. Don’t hesitate to get in touch if you have views to share or ideas/suggestions for forthcoming issues. We are also interested in spreading news about events and conferences held in Asia, Latin America and Africa. Please let us know of events and publications that can be useful for your fellow colleagues.

Health and Human Rights Info writes and distributes this newsletter, currently reaching more than 4.100 subscribers, free of charge. If you receive this newsletter for the first time, it is either because someone has recommended that we add your e-mail address to the list of subscribers, or because we believe that you might be interested in some or all of its content. Consider it an offer. If you want to continue to receive this newsletter, you don’t need to do anything.

If you know anyone who would be interested in receiving this e-newsletter about our project, please forward it, and encourage them to sign up by sending us an e-mail.
Sincerely yours

Health and Human Rights Info
Elisabeth Ng Langdal
Executive Director
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Society for the Study of Psychiatry and Culture, April 27-29 2017, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

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Call for Submissions for 38th Annual Meeting

 

April 27-29, 2017

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Villanova Conference Center at Villanova University

Culture and Mental Health:

Family Matters

Abstract submission deadline: September 21, 2016

Click here for Abstract Submission Form

We seek submissions on the theme of Culture and Mental Health: Family Matters. Conference sessions will explore how culture and family interact, especially to help define and pattern mental health, mental illness, and health care access and utilization. We are particularly interested in workshops, symposia, and individual papers on the following sub-themes: families, culture, and resilience;  cultural discourse on “family”; trauma and family; family and help-seeking; family-centered care for refugees, asylum seekers, and immigrant communities; families caring for their chronically mentally ill parent or child; evolving concepts of family; the family and suicide; the role of families in the internet and new technologies culture; training in family therapy and culture; and family through the lifespan.

Submission categories include Workshop, Symposium, Individual Paper or Poster, Work in Progress, and Trainee Fellowship. See attached Call for Abstracts for category descriptions.

The deadline for all submission types is September 21, 2016, except for Trainee Fellowship submissions, which have a deadline of November 1, 2016.

For additional information, please see attached Call for Abstracts or visit the Annual Meeting page at www.psychiatryandculture.org.

If you have any questions, please contact

Bonnie Kaiser, Chair of the Program Committee, at bonnienicolekaiser@gmail.com, or

Liz Kramer, Executive Director, at ekramer931@gmail.com, phone: (484) 416-3915

SSPC Call for Fellowships 2017

SSPC Call for Abstracts 2017

“Can” Film Screening April 28th, 2016

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Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Department of Psychiatry Center for Diversity Spring Speaker Series

A special screening of the award-winning documentary film “Can,” (amongourkin.org) followed by a panel discussion and Q&A with producer/director Pearl J. Park.

Thursday, April 28, 6-8 pm
MGH O’Keefe Auditorium
55 Fruit Street (Main Campus), 1st Floor
Doors open at 5:45 pm

Asian Americans are often perceived as the well-adjusted “model minority,” though they experience high rates of mental and emotional problems, and often do not seek help. Stigma, shame, and other cultural factors contribute to Asian Americans facing significant barriers to accessing mental health treatment. This film screening will encourage an open dialogue in hopes of educating providers and non-providers, increasing understanding, and reducing social stigma related to mental health in the Asian-American community. Open to the MGH community and general public.

“Can” What does it take to heal from mental illness?
Winner of the 2015 Audience Choice Award at Viet Film Fest.
One of the first documentary films about mental illness from an Asian-American perspective, “Can” provides a window into the inner dynamics of one Vietnamese-American family as immigrant parents struggle to deal with the mental illness of their American-raised son, Can. A former war refugee and college student aspiring to become a doctor, Can tries to reconcile cultural differences as he embarks on his own healing journey.

This program is funded in part by the American Psychiatric Association SAMHSA funded Minority Fellowship Program.

Manifesto of AGISSONS, by the AFPS

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Faced with the events of today, the president of the AFPS and its Board of Directors decided to launch this manifesto and call the associate leaders working with migrant and refugee populations to come together and think during a day of mobilization. Details and practical information concerning this day will be available soon.

Logo-AFPS2

Manifesto of the AFPS

Welcoming people in solidarity.
Ensuring dignity for mankind.
Innovating in initiatives and empathy.
Securing their process of exile from the beginning to the end.
Treating their physical, psychological and social injuries.
Organizing our associative support at both a national and European level.
Acknowledging reality and avoiding stigmatizing perceptions.
Relieving these people from the burden of exile.

Athens Declaration on Living with Schizophrenia

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Sponsors for the Athens Declaration on living with Schizophrenia

The World Federation for Mental Health (WFMH), the Hellenic Psychiatric Association, the European Association working for Carers (EUROCARERS), the European Federation of Associations of Families of People with Mental Illness (EUFAMI), the European Psychiatric Association (EPA), the Global Alliance of MentalIllness Advocacy Networks (GAMIAN-Europe), the Association of Siblings of people with Mental Illness (ΚΙΝΑΨΥ), the Psychiatric Association for Eastern Europe and the Balkans (PAEEB), the Society of Preventive Psychiatry, the World Association for Psychosocial Rehabilitation (WAPR), the World Association for Social Psychiatry (WASP) co-sign the following statement:

 

ATHENS DECLARATION ON “LIVING WITH SCHIZOPHRENIA”

Schizophrenia is a serious illness, starts early in life, affects 26 million people worldwide and more than half of the persons with this condition do not receive appropriate treatment. If neglected it can have serious consequences for the persons who suffer from it, for the people who care for these persons and for society as a whole.

In view of the above, the following facts should be considered:

  • Prevention of schizophrenia (in its primary, secondary and tertiary degree), treatment (with biological, psychosocial and other methods) and health promotion are both possible and cost/effective.
  • Recovery from schizophrenia is possible and rehabilitation of chronic institutionalized patients in the community can be achieved by most people.

We want to draw the attention of the global, regional and local authorities and organizations and the society as a whole to the above facts and urge them to:

  • Take into account the degree of suffering associated with schizophrenia for the patients and their families
  • Note that during periods of stress, like disasters, wars and financial crises vulnerable people are at risk of developing mental illness and people already suffering from it can experience relapse and exacerbation of their symptoms
  • Consider the existing evidence that curtailing the funds of mental health services can have detrimental effects on persons predisposed for schizophrenia or persons who are already suffering from it.
  • Call for support and advocacy of the persons who suffer from this painful and potentially self-destructive condition. People with schizophrenia receive less attention for their health, discontinuation of smoking strategies are less vigorous in their case, they rarely undergo angioplasty after a heart attack and they are not protected from developing a substance abuse disorder.
  • Note that schizophrenia may be one of the most serious disorders in psychiatric nosology but with due person-centered care recovery is possible and the persons who suffer from it may lead a normal, fulfilling and productive life.

Given in Athens on 10th October 2014
(World Mental Health Day 2014)