The IUPsyS and its partners is conducting a workshop on psychological intervention after disasters (PIAD) on 8 – 11 December 2014 in Mianyang, China. The workshop is the third in a series of similar workshops organized by the Union dealing with psychological research and practice concerning disasters, and how individuals and communities deal with disasters and its effects on their biopsychosocial well-being. The workshop is organized by Union, together with the Chinese Psychological Society, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the International Council for Science, Regional Office for Asia & the Pacific (ICSU ROAP), the United Nations University International Institute for Global Health (UNU/IIGH), the Integrated Research on Disaster Risk International Centre of Excellence (IRDR ICoE) located in Taipei and the Center for Applied Developmental Science (CADS), Friedrich Schiller University, Jena. The workshop is funded mainly by the Jacobs Foundation, Zurich (http://jacobsfoundation.org/who-we-are/) with in-kind and other contributions from partners. The workshop is hosted at the Southwest University of Science and Technology, Mianyang, Sichuan Province, China www.english.swust.edu.cn/s/198/t/623/p/1/c/2836/d/2854/list.htm
This workshop will bring up-to-date relevant basic and applied science to young investigators and academically trained practitioners of psychology in Asia and the Pacific. An international faculty from various fields of psychology who are experts in their fields will provide lectures and guidance during the workshop. Lecture topics will include a combination of basic, applied, and translational research related to short and long-term consequences of disasters for human behavior and development in adolescence and adulthood, addressing not only negative effects but also posttraumatic growth. Participants will be introduced to cutting edge research concerning the role of specific contexts such as family and community, to particular manifestations of strain such as anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and to various means of evidence-based preventive means and interventions to support recovery. A prime emphasis will be on the cultural awareness needed when generalizing scientific approaches, and on roots of individual and collective differences in responses to disasters, such as personality and resilience. The sessions will emphasize methodological rigor as a common denominator of all science, including information on longitudinal research on survivors of disasters and the analysis of randomized control trials and other ecologically feasible methodologies.