A number of interesting conferences take place in the next few months. They all focus on trauma exposure, traumatic stress and mental health. And for three of them submission deadlines are approaching rather quickly…
Those described below are just a fraction of what is organized all over the world (apologies for the Australian bias :-)). If you’re interested, the ISTSS website has an extensive list of events.
1) World Congress on Traumatic Stress
This conference is always in always in some fantastic, exotic location… and it’s once every two years, if I’m right, so put it in your agenda for 2014. This year it’s May 23-26 in México City, México.
Theme: “Seeing what is in front of us: Addressing trauma in medical, emergency and mental health settings.”
Keynote speaker is Duncan Pedersen from Canada (McGill). He focuses on social and cultural aspects of mental health, in particular after organized violence.
Almost all members of the ISTSS leadership team will give lectures during the conference because they combine their conference attendance with board meetings. Therefore, the conference has a nice line-up of international speakers, including
- Daniel Mosca (Argentina) – Disaster Intervention in At-risk Populations from a Cultural and Social Perspective: From Katrina to Santa Fe
- Yoshiharu Kim (Japan) – Psychological Impacts of the Japan Great Eastern Earthquake, Tsunami and Nuclear Plant Accident
- Grete Dyb (Norway) – The Value of Outreach and Screening of Youth Exposed to the Terror Attack in Oslo 2011
- Elana Newman (USA) – Traumatic Stress and Journalism: Research and Clinical Directions
- Jonathan Bisson (UK) – Psychological First Aid
2) Australasian Conference of Child Trauma
A new conference! Deadline for abstract submissions is March 20. The meeting itself is July 4-6, on the Gold Coast, Australia (not a bad place to be, especially in July).
The theme: “Connected by Trauma: Research, Response, Recovery”. More specifically, the conference “invites participants to discover and contemplate how new advances in brain science, innovations in service delivery, education, program consultation, clinical assessment / treatment and research, are improving the lives of infants, young people, families and communities affected by trauma. The Conference will focus on the impact of traumatic experiences from a developmental perspective in all its forms including the implications of single event trauma (such as natural disasters, accidents, and assault) and complex multiple-event trauma (such as abuse, neglect, and war).”
Some of the invited speakers (with keywords on expertise because presentation titles aren’t available yet):
- Rachel Yehuda (USA) – traumatic stress and neurobiology of PTSD
- Beverley Raphael (Aus) – prevention and management of trauma, loss and grief
- Akemi Tomoda (Japan) – brain imaging and genetic research of child maltreatment
- Louise Newman (Aus) – disorders of early parenting and attachment difficulties in infants
3) Australian Conference on Traumatic Stress
A bi-annual conference as well, his time in Perth, Australia, September 6-8. The deadline for abstract submissions is approaching: March 31.
The conference theme is broad: “Trauma and Disaster: Complexity, Diversity, and Recovery”.
Three invited speakers:
Doug Zatzick (USA) – Public Health Approaches to the Development and Implementation of Trauma Focused Interventions in Post-disaster Contexts
Michael Scheeringa (USA) – Post-traumatic Stress in Very Young Children: Recognition, Treatment and Post-disaster Challenges
Pat Dudgeon (Aus) – Indigenous People and Trauma
4) Annual Meeting of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies
And finally, the annual meeting of the ISTSS. The conference is a little further away (November 1-3 in LA, USA) but the abstract deadline is not: March 15.
The theme is “Beyond Boundaries: Innovations to Expand Services and Tailor Traumatic Stress Treatments”.
“This meeting will provide a forum to discuss innovative strategies for outreach, assessment, treatments and programs that will enable us to deliver services in a wider variety of contexts and reach more trauma survivors”. No information on key note presenters available yet, but this is usually the biggest conference on traumatic stress that is organized, so there won’t be any shortage of interesting presentations and people.
Trauma Recovery Lab 