KAMPALA, Uganda
The Peter C. Alderman Foundation (PCAF), a non-profit organization whose mission is to heal the emotional wounds of victims of terrorism and violence in post-conflict countries around the globe, reported that its Sixth Annual PCAF Conference on Psychotrauma: Trauma, Culture and Healing held July 15-18, 2013 here made significant advances in the education of healthcare professionals treating the victims of terrorism.
Organized and sponsored by PCAF in association with the World Association of Cultural Psychiatry and Makerere University, the conference was attended by 470 mental health professionals from 19 countries.
Opened by Dr. Sheila Ndyanabangi of the Ministry of Health, and closed by Dr. Margaret Mungherera, President of the World Medical Association, presentations covered a range of topics from societal impacts affecting mental health outcomes for children; innovative interventions to rehabilitate war-affected youth; and models of cultural adaptation of psychosocial packages from faculty of Columbia University, Queen Mary University of London, University of Cape Town, Harvard School of Public Health, Muhimbili University, NYU School of Medicine, University of Nairobi, and Oxford University.
The group looked at culture and trauma; learned about nodding disease; explored the process of building hope to prevent suicide; analyzed a public health approach to preventing radicalization; and explored program evaluation.
Conference reports on the state of mental health in Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Burundi, Sierra Leone, Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria, Tanzania and Liberia were also presented.
About the Peter C. Alderman Foundation: The mission of the Peter C. Alderman Foundation, which was formed in 2003 by Elizabeth and Stephen Alderman to honor their son Peter who was murdered by terrorists in the destruction of the World Trade Center September 11, 2001, is to heal the emotional wounds of victims of terrorism and mass violence by training indigenous health workers and establishing trauma treatment systems in post-conflict countries around the globe.
In 10 years, PCAF has established eight trauma clinics: two in Cambodia, four in Uganda, one in Liberia and one in a maternal child health clinic in one of Africa’s largest slums in Kibera, Kenya and treated more than 100,000 patients.
Working in public/private partnership with governments, PCAF creates capacity, sustainability and community acceptance at very low cost.
For more information: Melissa M. Krantz Krantz and Company 917-653-6716 mkrantz@krantzandco.com
SOURCE Peter C. Alderman Foundation (PCAF)
