Psychologists and torture: Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib
I was recently contacted by colleague and friend Brinton M. Lykes from the The Ignacio Martin-Baró Fund for Mental Health and Human Rights. She drew my attention to the fact that there is an increasing national concern in the US over the growing evidence that psychologists and other mental health workers have been directly involved in interrogations, and in some cases torture, of detainees at Guantánamo Bay, Abu Ghraib, and elsewhere. In response a campaign has been launched against this.

She wrote: "In response to these realities of deep concern to many of us as psychologists and as US citizens, the Fund has launched a two-pronged petition campaign calling on both Congress and the American Psychological Association to commission independent investigations of this situation, and to take concrete action to put an end to these practices...We are seeking support not only from those who are professionally involved in mental health issues, but from everyone who is concerned about these issues. You need not be a psychologist or a member of the American Psychological Association to sign the APA petition, although if you are a member -- and want to let the APA know -- you can include this information in the "Affiliations" field of the response form.".

Both petitions are available from the Fund's home page: www.martinbarofund.org and from the petitions to the signature page. If you prefer to go directly to the petitions, the URLs for those are below:

Petition to Congress, click here.
Petition to APA, click here.
Signature page for both petitions, click here.
posted by Brandon at 3:49 AM

3rd International and Interdisciplinary Trauma Research Net Conference

Call for Papers

Conference theme: Trauma - Stigma and Distinction. The Social Ambivalences in the Face of Extreme Suffering.

14-17 September 2006, St. Moritz (Switzerland)

Deadline for proposals by e-mail: March 31, 2006. Decisions will be announced by e-mail before June 1, 2006. Provisional programme and registration information will be publishing at www.traumaresearch.net closer to conference time. For more details click here.
posted by Brandon at 12:57 PM

New Research: A Place for Reconciliation?

Grainne Kelly and I (Brandon Hamber), in our capacity as Research Associates to Democratic Dialogue (one of my other affiliations other than OPSI), have finally finished the final and large report on our study on reconciliation in Northern Ireland. The report is entitled: A Place for Reconciliation? Conflict and Locality in Northern Ireland.

The report includes our definition of reconciliation that has now been adopted by the EU PEACE II Programme and it explains the definition and the research that supports it in detail.

The research for the report was conducted in three case-study areas in Northern Ireland, where interviews were conducted with elected representatives, council officials and NGO representatives. It found ambivalence among practitioners on the ground towards the communalist politics of the council chamber and, amid some confusion as to the meaning of reconciliation, a willingness to embrace the definition we developed.

To download the report click here, or email me if you want a hard copy.
posted by Brandon at 1:40 PM

Professional Development Course: Reconstruction after Conflict and War
In February 2005 the Office of Psychosocial Issues, an international organisation and group of consultants based at the Free University in Berlin, will be offering a Professional Development Course on Reconstruction after Conflict and War. The course aims to utilise the skills of two international facilitators working in the area of psychosocial support, community development and trauma management. The course is targeted at community workers and staff working directly with and supporting victims/survivors of political conflict. The 6–day course, for a maximum of 20 participants, will be held in two parts, the first in Northern Ireland and the second part in at a time and place to be confirmed. The course is awaiting accreditation from the Open College Network. Full funding is available for Northern Ireland-based participants and the event will be residential based. For more information download course information by clicking here.
posted by Brandon at 7:16 AM

Directory of Open Access Journals
The Directory of Open Access Journals service covers free, full text, quality controlled scientific and scholarly journals. They aim to cover all subjects and languages. There are now 1366 journals in the directory. Currently 334 journals are searchable on article level. As of today 61433 articles are included in the DOAJ service. Visit the site at: http://www.doaj.org/
posted by Brandon at 5:03 AM

The Impact of Trauma: A psychosocial approach
I have been meaning to put this up for a while, it is a copy of the keynote address I gave to the “A Shared Practice - Victims Work in Action Conference”, 7-8 April 2004, Radisson Roe Park Hotel, in Limavady, Northern Ireland. To read the paper online, click here.
posted by Brandon at 2:31 AM

Bush launches controversial mental health plan
Jeane Lenzer writes in the British Medical Journal this week that "President Bush announced on 26 July that his administration has begun implementing the recommendations of the New Freedom Commission on Mental Health to "improve mental health services and support for people of all ages with mental illness" through comprehensive screening. The plan states that schools are in a "key position" to screen the "52 million students and six million adults who work at the schools" and includes recommendations for screening preschool children. Mr Bush's announcement comes after new reports showing that increasing numbers of toddlers and children are being prescribed amphetamines, anti-depressants, and antipsychotic drugs. Concern that widespread screening will only increase the number of young people taking drugs has triggered criticism of the plan. Dr Daniel Fisher, one of the 22 commissioners responsible for writing the final report for the president, said that widespread screening—at a time when medical education was "geared to the biomedical model and teachers want to get kids fixed"—could result in greater numbers of children being given "a label, a diagnosis, and a medication. What troubles me a little bit," said Dr Fisher, "is that mental health will continue to be used as a substitute for addressing the social, cultural, and economic needs of children." More...

posted by Brandon at 1:25 AM