Disaster Management Day 1

OK so a lot has been happening while I haven't been posting, but no time to relate that just at the moment.


I'm at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, attending the Disaster Management 2011 Conference organised jointly by UCF and Wessex Institute of Technology (UK).


We were welcomed to the event by Carlos Brebbia (WIT) and Alain Kassab (UCF) who each told us a lot about their respective organisations.  We then had a very interesting keynote talk by Naim Kapucu, from the Centre for Public and Non-Profit Management.  He described how his PhD research was on the emergency responses to the terrorist attacks on the USA in September 11th 2001. On completing this he thought he would move into more general policy issues but fate had different ideas. He relocated to Florida and in 2004 the central region was struck by four hurricanes in rapid succession. This inevitably drew him back into the field of emergency responses to large scale disasters. 


[Florida is so accustomed to extreme weather events that every lecture theatre on campus has its own copy of the disaster response plan. The reality of this was brought home to me as I noticed the janitor's office next to the ladies loo was marked as a hurricane emergency local resource centre].


Dr Kapucu's research has made use of social network analysis to explore the interrelationships between the various federal, state, local, public and private sector organisations that all have a role to play in disaster management. he showed us some fascinating visual representations of the these networks, which can be used to diagnose weaknesses or breakdowns that may place the public at risk.


Towards the end of the day it was my turn to present the paper I co-authored with folks at Coventry: The contribution of human psychology to disaster management: mitigation, advance preparedness, response and recovery.  Given this rather inclusive title, luckily in my presentation I only had to plot out a broad overview of the areas where work has been done, and highlight gaps where there is potential for further development. The talk went well (I think) and I had some interesting questions, including one from a US healthcare professional about the phenomenon of 'worried well' self-presenting to emergency departments in crises, and another on the ways in which online social networking may give us an insight into the behaviour of volunteers in a disaster. More great ideas for further research...
The paper is available (in full text, via open access) at http://library.witpress.com/pages/PaperInfo.asp?PaperID=22040


During the final session of the day we became aware of a thunderstorm and high winds which necessitated a swift retreat back to the conference hotel.  I'm very grateful to the team who looked after us, reassured us and got us indoors safely before the threatened 'dime-sized' hailstones arrived. 

Making preparations

Spent what seemed like an awfully long time this morning making preparations for travel to a conference in May.  Visa waiver application, flights, accommodation,etc. At least it's done now.

Afternoon spent doing some marking, and preparing for tomorrow's classes on two different applied psychology masters programmes: Forensic Psychology and Health Psychology, plus a wee bit of research on an external organisation who've expressed an interest in buying some training from us. 

Really looking forward to Friday when I hope to pick up my OWN work again - if I ever manage to catch up on all the (increasingly terse) emails that are swamping my inbox...

More teaching

Met with my head of department today to talk about taking on some extra bits and pieces of cover within the health psychology team.  There have been a few moves (departures, other people's sabbaticals, planned absences, etc.) so duties have to be swapped around a little.

I also broke the news about the Florida conference, and my HoD was positive about supporting me to attend - reasonable costs permitting.

Teaching this afternoon on Advanced Social Psychology.  Allocated students a couple of papers to read on the use of personal construct approaches in social psychology:

Doster, J. A., Mielke, R. K., Riley, C. A., Toledo, J. R., Goven, A. J., & Moorefield, R. (2006). Play and health among a group of adult business executives. Social Behavior and Personality, 34(9), 1071-1080.

Weiss, P. A., Watson, N., & McGuire, H. (2003). Smoking and self-concept in young adults: An idiographic method of measurement. Journal of Constructivist Psychology, 16(4), 323-334.

Looking forward to hearing what they make of them when we meet again next week...

Spring soon to be be springing

Term restarted yesterday, so seems a reasonable time to post again - plus the winter solstice has been and gone, so the days are getting longer...

Managed to send a paper off yesterday, which should be published in conference proceedings.  Now just need to arrange a US visa and flight, etc, so I can attend and present it.

Very pleased to say that PhD student Felicity had a successful Progress Review Panel at the end of her first year of research. Well done!

I also got my membership card for the allotment today, so much fantasising about digging, sowing, growing and eating...

Big smoke for a couple of days

Rather annoyingly had news today that the student I spent half a day designing a personalised programme of retake work for last week didn't bother to turn up for the first scheduled meeting. Wondering sometimes why we bother...


Pleased to get an email today from someone who attended our motivational interviewing day yesterday, and hoping to develop an applied research collaboration as a result.  I always meet people working on interesting projects when I run these events, and it's nice to have a chance to find out more about their work.


Off to London tomorrow for a couple of days related conference activity.


Friday
PCOS UK (health professionals conference) , with topics including:

PCOS, Physical Activity and Insulin Resistance
Practical steps to tackling common dermatology issues
Living with PCOS - developing effective coping strategies
Reducing the quality of life impact of PCOS - top tips for primary care
Research Digest
Cardiovascular risk and PCOS - effective management strategies
The risks and benefits of bariatric surgery in the management of PCOS
 
Saturday
Verity (patient group for women whose lives are affected by PCOS), topics including:


Emotional impact of PCOS - Colette Harris
Get to know your menstrual cycle - Dr Lisa Webber
Alopecia and excess hair - Dr Alison Layton
Being slim with PCOS - Speaker TBC
Weight loss options for PCOS - Dr David Haslam
PCOS and your fertility - Professor Stephen Franks

Staying in a Travelodge so not taking my laptop and therefore no posts.  No offence Travelodge, I just don't fancy leaving it in boot of car all day.

Trying not to be mechanical...

Busy on campus day today:


Earlier part of morning attending the opening of the conference I mentioned yesterday. Inspired by colleagues’ presentations.

Late morning dealing with usual bunch of emails.

Excellent meeting with three co-researchers, to agree who was going to do what regarding two major data sets: women’s experiences with polycystic ovary syndrome, and families’ experiences with assistance dogs. Looking forward to both.

Then pitched the Disaster Management research internship to a pleasantly substantial group of students (and one graduate) who had expressed an interest. Despite the fact that we have no money to offer, it was gratifying to find that several people remained committed to taking the posts up, even after seeing my PowerPoint presentation.

After that it was back to the conference, where it seems that I missed some controversy and impassioned debate. Replace FGM, the associated project, aims to address problems associated with female genital mutilation, on health and human rights grounds. But the term ‘mutilation’ when applied in this context is problematic for some. Essentially the same surgical procedure requested by a white western woman might be deemed acceptable on the basis that it enhances her self-esteem or sexual confidence, yet condemned as abusive and oppressive in a black African woman. Huge issues here as regards how ‘we’ define ‘health’ and individual autonomy.

Meanwhile it all got a bit nasty at the student fees protests in London.  I know some of our students travelled to the event.  Just hope that none were involved, either as perpetrators of the violence, or innocent onlookers.

Double booked, but in a good cause

Good meeting today with Felicity, the PhD student I co-supervise with colleagues Gill Ward and Sandy Herron-Marx.  We agreed on work to be completed before the annual progress review meeting in early January.  And Felicity is almost ready to go live with her first set of data collection.  Link will appear on her blog soon.

Have also had to book a room for tomorrow to speak to all the prospective interns who've responded to my offer of research assistant experience. Am surprised and delighted that there's been such an enthusiastic response.  I am attending a conference organised by colleagues tomorrow but will have to fore go the afternoon session to talk to the candidates. The topic is one that I think deserves much more attention than it's had to date: recognising, preventing and addressing the problems associated with female genital mutilation.

Literature Searching in Disaster Management

Most of today has been spent literature searching in preparation for a manuscript my colleague and I are writing.

Percy, C. & Chen, Y.F.
The potential contribution of human psychology to disaster management: advance preparedness, acute responses and longer term psychosocial effects.
Paper to be presented to the 2nd International Conference on Disaster Management and Human Health: Reducing Risk, Improving Outcomes, 11 - 13 May 2011, Orlando, USA

Fortunately such searches no longer have to be done by hand or on foot, thanks to the university's excellent online library facilities.

Which tracks?

Spent morning dealing with enquiries about our motivational interviewing courses.  Delighted that some psychology colleagues will be joining us on the courses in October and November.

Rest of day updating various contacts in relation to my grand research plans.

Also confirmed which tracks I will be attending at the forthcoming Verity conference in November.

Pic: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Raccoon_tracks.jpg

Cluj-Napoca Final Day

Last day of the conference today. 

Another great keynote: Michael Murray began with a story about his last trip to Romania, (in the early 1970's) in which he and his 'hippy' companions were swiftly escorted back over the border by the army. 

He went on to take us on a brief critical tour of health psychology's past, before making suggestions for future developments.

We also had the closing ceremony with lots of thanks and roses, plus a trailer for next year's conference in Crete.

I was fortunate to be awarded a poster prize for my work on PCOS - so even I got a flower to take home on the plane :-)

Now to see if there's enough space left in my suitcase to permit another trip to that great fabric shop on Bulevardal Eroilor...

Cluj-Napoca Day 4

OK - getting a bit tired now - standing by a poster for an hour at a time is quite wearing on the feet.  You can probably tell this by the look on my face in today's picture.

The paper that made the greatest impression on me today was the Keynote, by Prof. Mircea Miclea, Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania.

Prof Miclea discussed in detail the Computer Mediated Psychotherapy intervention that he and colleagues have developed: paxonline.  What makes it distinctive is that it is multi-user platform, creating a community of learning that includes patients, family physicians and psychotherapists.  It also offers a stepped care intervention, designed to meet patients' needs at the point of initial help-seeking, rather than assuming that all people with mental health problems will want to, or be able to access face to face psychotherapy.

Although it's in Romanian, and won't go online until later this month, I think I'll have a look and run it through Google Translate.

Cluj-Napoca Day 2

Conference proper started today, with a provocative keynote from Michelle Fine from the Graduate Centre, City University of New York. Taking the conference theme "Health in Context" seriously, Prof. Fine talked about her work in participatory action research, and the commitments that underpin her approach.

She cautioned us of the dangers that (psychological) science is being recruited for a particular kind of nation building - one that increases the gap between richest and poorest. She argued that 'circuits of dispossession' need to be recognised and challenged by health psychologists' work, and gave us some homework to do:

Both Spain and France report social problems and deprivation among Roma people living on their soil. France has 'repatriated' dozens of Roma , and intends to continue - citing crime statistics as a justification. Spain has invested significantly to include Roma and address inequalities. Prof Fine suggests we treat this as a natural experiment. Let's all see how these divergent responses translate in to social and health outcomes in the years to come.

Cluj-Napoca Day 1

hmmm... it's a quarter to nine here, so it must be ... quarter to seven there (UK) - I think.

Arrived in Cluj-Napoca today and been on a brief reccy of local area.  Turns out I am staying in hotel right next door to the University's Psychology Department - home from home.

But I want a nice cup of tea!