4th International Workshop on Psychological Intervention After Disasters

UNU International Institute for Global Health is partnering with the International Union of Psychological Science (IUPsyS) to conduct the 4th International Workshop on psychological intervention after disasters. IUPsyS is an internationally recognised umbrella establishment of about 90 national scientific organizations of psychology worldwide with main activities focusing on fostering the development of the science and practice of Psychology.

The workshop will be sponsored by the International Research on Disaster Risk International Centre of Excellence (IRDR-ICoE) of Academia Sinica and its partners. It targets researchers, educators, and practitioners from across the entire Asia-Pacific region, who have an academic background, primarily in psychology and affiliated fields, and who are interested and experienced in work on disasters. Psychologists who work with particular target groups, such as children an adolescents as well as young and early career scientists from Asian-Pacific countries are also welcomed.

This year’s workshop will focus on the Asia and Pacific region as it relates to two important facts namely (i) four billion inhabitants of the region form 60% of the world’s population and 41% of the natural disasters around the world occur in this region, frequently causing extensive damage, loss of life, and severe hardship; (ii) the majority of countries in this region often lack an advanced infrastructure or responsive rescue systems, and help is typically concentrated on addressing physical and infrastructural devastation with less attention being paid to effects on individuals, especially of psychological adversity.