Behavioral Emergencies Update

In this issue...

The President's Column:
Who is teaching our youth?

Letter from the Editor

Ideas for Moving Forward

Assessment of Firearm Access

The Lack of Graduate School Training in Suicide Assessment and Management

APA Program Summary

SECTION VII Members'
APA PROGRAMMING

SECTION VII BOARD MEMBERS

Pre-APA Convention

Extras

     
Aloha! As your new President-Elect and Chair of the Division 12, Section VII Program Committee, I am pleased to provide you with a preview of coming attractions for the upcoming APA Convention in Honolulu. The dates are July 28-August 1, 2004. For sensible and obvious reasons, APA cut back the scheduled program time per day to provide attendees with an opportunity to enjoy the beauty of Hawaii. This is the good news. The bad news is that the total amount of program time will be consistently less than usual, and the program time allotted to our Section was also cut. However, there is more good news. The presentations we do have are outstanding.

A high point of the convention will be Dr. Lanny Berman's Presidential Address. This address will be on Thursday, July 30th at, 11:00am and is entitled: The Psychological Autopsy in Clinical and Forensic Practice.

As many of you know, Dr. Berman is Executive Director of the American Association of Suicidology as well as President of Section VII. His address will define the psychological autopsy, describe its use in clinical and forensic settings, and provide a standardized protocol for the psychological autopsy, The Daubert Standard. Dr. Berman will highlight how the requirements put forth by this standard, that evidence be based on science, have complicated the use of psychological autopsy material in forensic settings, and he will also discuss how to meet this standard when presenting evidence and conclusions based on the psychological autopsy. This should be an educational and highly-relevant presentation, and I urge you to attend.

Section VII is also sponsoring a 2 hour symposium on Sunday, August 1, from 9:00-10:50am, which is entitled: Responding to Violence in Hospitals and Communities: Two Innovative Programs. Interpersonal violence and mass violence in the form of terrorism are major concerns throughout the U.S. and the world. Such violence is a major contributing factor to mental and physical health problems. This symposium will describe two innovative programs that have been developed to help address violence and its consequences.

Dr. Connie Best's presentation is titled: Hospital-based Program for Seriously Injured Crime Victims. This program is designed for violent crime victims who sustained injuries sufficient to require hospitalization. Crime victims are identified within inpatients, provided with information about crime-related mental health problems, and given information about crime victims' compensation and the criminal justice system process. Dr. Best will describe the program and how it has been an extremely cost effective way to provide services to crime victims and to generate funds for the hospital. Dr. Heidi Resnick's presentation is titled: Addressing Psychological Impact of Mass Violence via Internet Interventions. Based on the research that she and her colleagues did examining the mental health impact of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, Dr. Resnick developed an internet-based psycho-educational intervention designed for use with adults in the general population following terrorist attacks or incidents of mass violence. She will describe the intervention, provide data about its utilization, and discuss how it or similar interventions might be used following future incidents of violence. This should be a great session that will give you many ideas and tools you can use to address the consequences of violence in your community.

Look over the other outstanding programs being conducted by Section VII members in the program summary included in the newsletter!

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