Away to Belfast! UKPTS 9th Annual Conference 2017

This coming Tuesday 21st of March 2017 sees Dr John Durkin of Social Support Systems CIC speaking at the 9th annual conference of the United Kingdom Psychological Trauma Society (UKPTS), being held in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

The UKPTS organisational aims are:

• To provide a forum for multi-disciplinary professionals working in the field of psychotrauma to share ideas and knowledge relevant to their work in the field
• To provide considered, and evidence based, comment on psychological trauma on behalf of the membership in order to aid those who might be affected by traumatic eventsTo provide a forum for health professionals that lead clinical traumatic stress services to meet and share best practice and informal peer supervision (this forum is called the UK Trauma Group; it is now a subgroup of the UKPTS)
• To provide members with access to quality, affordable CPD events that will support the continuing development of best practice in the field of psychotraumatology
• To promote practice, guidance and policy which has as its aim the alleviation of suffering as a result of psychological trauma through dissemination of evidence based prevention, early detection and treatment
• To maintain a close relationship with the European Society for Traumatic Stress Studies and other organisations with an interest in traumatic stress
• Dr John Durkin of Social Support Systems CIC
• It is with these aims in mind that John is to give a talk on Psychological Debriefing, following his recent and unique achievement in demonstrating to the United States’ Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMSHA) the effectiveness and evidence-base for Critical Incident Stress Debriefing (CISD)
• The acceptance by SAMSHA of the evidence produced by John is a great step forward for those who know and see in real-world application the benefits produced by CISD, yet are frustrated by the  objection to the technique, cited by the UK National Institute for Clinical Excellence and Health (NICE).
• Despite significant evidence to the contrary NICE continue in refusing to accept the efficacy of the technique, despite widespread international recognition of its benefits, and inter-continental, real-world application in operational emergency services the world over.
• During his talk, John hopes to highlight this somewhat baffling disparity between two national organisations charged with over-seeing psychological trauma care, and question the basis upon which the NICE position regarding CISD was founded.