2004 Annual Meeting Offers Compelling Presentations, Special Opportunities and New Features

Josef Ruzek and Patricia Watson, 20th Annual Meeting Co-Chairs

With just a few months before the ISTSS 20th annual meeting, it’s time to plan your visit to New Orleans for the event, November 14–18. The meeting, with an international theme of “War as a Universal Trauma,” will include a broad perspective on the many populations affected by armed conflicts: civilian adults and children, active-duty personnel, veterans, emergency aid workers, and refugees and internally displaced people.

In this year’s keynote presentation, Chris Hedges, longtime war correspondent for the New York Times, will discuss many of the myths and realities of war, as described in his book War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning. The four plenary presentations also will focus on the theme of war trauma. Stuart Turner will discuss moving beyond simple assertion of human rights post-conflict to a more active position of assuming responsibility for human welfare. Joop de Jong will describe a public health approach that addresses causative factors of armed conflicts and collective violence, and enables interventionists to develop preventive and rehabilitative interventions. Victor Sidel of Physicians for Social Consciousness will discuss peace as prevention, and the extent to which war contributes to short- and long-term population morbidity and mortality. Matthew Friedman, Harry Holloway, Zahava Solomon and Brett Litz will explore state-of-the-art care for active-duty combatants.

For the clinician, there will be much of interest this year. Pre- and Post-Meeting Institutes will cover a range of practical topics, including how to implement prolonged exposure treatment for chronic PTSD; overcoming treatment roadblocks with trauma survivors; how to use cognitive-processing therapy with sexual abuse survivors; couples treatment for PTSD; working with action and bodily states in the treatment of trauma; group treatment for survivors of war and terrorism; acceptance and commitment therapy as a treatment for PTSD; Gestalt and emotion-focused approaches to posttrauma therapy; posttrauma evaluation and treatment of disaster relief workers; cognitive-behavioral interventions for trauma in school settings; current challenges in helping children affected by domestic violence; implementation of evidence-based treatments for traumatized children in community settings; and psychophysiology 101: an introduction to measures and methods.

Master therapist sessions will address delivery of dialectical behavior therapy with trauma survivors (Amy Wagner), treatment of panic in the context of PTSD (Sherry Falsetti) and traumatic grief treatment (Kathy Shear). Clinical consultation sessions scheduled are Hospital ER and Terrorism Response (Arieh Shalev), CBT for ASD (Richard Bryant) and Child and Family Interventions Following Disasters and Terrorism (Bob Pynoos). A wide range of workshops also will be offered. Finally, note that poster sessions will be given increased emphasis, offered within the body of the meeting, and will be hosted by prominent ISTSS leaders.

We look forward to seeing you in New Orleans for the ISTSS 20th Annual Meeting. Watch the mail for your preliminary program, which should arrive in August. For more meeting information, go to the “Annual Meetings” link at http://www.istss.org/meetings/cfp2004.htm.

What’s New at the 20th Annual Meeting

• A sliding scale for registration fees, using a country categorization from the World Bank, will offer reduced fees for attendees from qualifying countries.
• Students receive a significant registration discount—they may register for the annual meeting at 25% of regular registration fees.
• Poster sessions are incorporated into the daily conference schedule and divided into three sessions each day, November 15 and 16, giving senior investigators a means for increased face-to-face contact with clinicians, students and other investigators.
• In addition to the Pre-Meeting Institutes on Sunday, November 14, ISTSS and AABT are collaborating to present Post-Meeting Institutes on Wednesday and Thursday, November 17–18, immediately following the ISTSS annual meeting and preceding AABT’s annual meeting.

Special Opportunities

• The Association for Advancement of Behavior Therapy (AABT) is holding its 28th annual meeting at the Hilton New Orleans Riverside, November 18–21, following the ISTSS annual meeting.
• The Conference on Innovations in Trauma Research Methods (CITRM) will convene at the Hilton Garden Inn New Orleans Downtown November 17–18 (see page 4 for more information).
• The International Society for the Study of Dissociation (ISSD) will hold its 2004 annual conference November 18–20, at the JW Marriott Hotel, New Orleans. For more information visit www.issd.org.