 EFPSA Joint Executive Board & Member Representatives Meeting 2019

From 26th of October until the 2nd of November, the EFPSA Working Community sets aside online communication as it convenes for a week of General Assemblies, internal meetings and intense work in the mountains of Slovenia. The annual Joint Executive Board & Member Representatives Meeting (EB&MR) is held each autumn and it is attended by individuals who are active members within the EFPSA Working Community. Taking place halfway through the EFPSA mandate, the meeting is a crucial time for EFPSA, allowing all active students of EFPSA to gather in order to discuss their mandate so far and engage in discussion with other teams over the future direction of the Federation.

Furthermore, Marko Vrtovec will join us for a presentation on the European Congress of Psychology 2021 taking place in Ljubljana, Slovenia. After the presentation, EFPSA will have a meeting to discuss the Student Day that is planned right before the ECP.

 EFPSA Research Programme

EFPSA has been working very hard on improving the EFPSA Junior Researcher Programme. This also includes a brand-new name: EFPSA Research Programme. We feel that the Programme needed a fresh start with a new name that will be established among psychology students within Europe interested in research. The included EFPSA European Summer School will also change its name to EFPSA Research Summer School. We are convinced that this name better represents the EFPSA Event. The change of names and smaller changes within the Programme will be proposed to EFPSA Legislative Body, the Member Representatives during the General Assemblies in Slovenia.

 4th EFPSA Conference

Climate change is now affecting every country on every continent. It is affecting lives, communities and countries deeply today and even more tomorrow. In November, EFPSA is hosting its 4th EFPSA Conference with the topic "Environmental Psychology: Humans in their surrounding world." Lectures will be held by a wide range of lecturers and professional psychologists from different universities and institutions, not only limited to the Czech Republic. EFPSA is proud to foster intercultural dialogue between professionals, academics and students!

 World Mental Health Day

On 10th of October, EFPSA raised awareness on Suicide Prevention by showing infographics and statements on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Combined with more than 500 “likes” and 350 “shares”, and a reach of more than 30.000 people, we are grateful that we can make an impact for an important cause.

 34th EFPSA Congress

The annual EFPSA Congress will take place from 9th to 16th of April in Ireland. We are welcoming more than 450 students to the Congress with the theme “Looking to the Future through the Lens of the Past”. Application for the Congress will be opened in December.

 Written by 

Ying Wai Cheung
President of EFPSA (European Federation of Psychology Students' Associations)  

Improving the mental health of children in care worldwide

 Background: 

Urbanization, migration and the economic crises cause millions of children globally to grow up separated from parents. In substandard orphanages and foster care systems, frequently without government monitoring, or any caregiver support. Thus, most children suffer from neglect, physical and emotional abuse, and fail in education and adult life.

The appalling number of families unable to keep their children calls for large scale intervention programs in attachment-based care, promoting urban family support and attachment based educations for professional caregivers and foster families. However, the costs of traditional training and education prevents the formation of training and monitoring systems.

 Methods: 

To meet this challenge, Danish psychologist Niels Peter Rygaard co-founded the www.fairstartfoundation.com and gathered a network of international child and youth psychologists researchers. It provides NGOs, government and professional organizations worldwide with six month online class staff educations, and training programs for groups of caregivers in local versions adjusted to local language and care traditions.

 Outcomes: 

In 2 year partnerships from Greenland to Chile, the non-profit Fairstart Foundation has educated 540 instructors who trained the caregivers of 40.000 children in care. The site now provides free training programs in 20 language versions for foster, kinship, refugee and group based care. Partners state that this blended learning solution reduces their education costs by 80 %. See this African example from APA International .

On behalf of the Fairstart Foundation, my thanks to the hundreds of colleagues and researchers who contribute pro bono to our work.

Written by
Niels Rygaard
Founder of Fairstart Foundation
Member of the EFPA Board of Promotion and Prevention 

Click to view on Youtube videos about Fairstart Foundation programs:

  2 minutes examples of how partner organisations apply our programs (with Spanish subtitles)

 About the online instructor education 

 Description of  Fairstart  by  Niels Rygaard 

Find here Niels Rygaard Publications  and Presentations 

European Association for Aviation Psychology (EAAP) Special Newsletter: Italy-Spain-Brazil Relations

 August, 2019

Building bridges: Italy-Spain-Brazil relations

Here are excerpts from the EAAP special newsletter dedicated to promoting regional developments in Italy, Spain and Brazil. We hope that you enjoy reading about building bridges!

Photo source: Wikimedia: diagram of a jet bridge

 IT-APA is born!

In April 2019 the Italian Association of Aviation Psychology, short IT-APA, was born. Founders and current board members are:

• Alessandra Rea, President, EAAP member
• Nicoletta Lombardo, Vice President, EAAP member
• Micaela Scialanga, Secretary

IT-APA pursues a social interest and actively works to prevent and manage incidents, to ensure high safety standards, to promote the health of aviation professionals and passengers. To achieve these goals IT-APA is committed to the promotion of aviation psychology and protection of the professional figure of the aviation psychologist.

IT-APA associates are Psychologists and Human Factor Specialists that operate in the aviation field applying concepts, methods and instruments typical of psychological sciences.

IT-APA works in many processes like selection, training, evaluation, research, support and for the different professionals that characterize aviation: pilot, flight attendants, air traffic controllers, air traffic safety electronic personnel, technicians and maintenance, security personnel.

EAAP congratulates IT-APA on their foundation and is honored to join forces with IT-APA in a partnership and strategic cooperation to take Aviation Psychology to the next level.

For all info switch to IT-APA website  

 AEPA becomes a corporate member of EAAP!

The Spanish Association of Aviation Psychology (AEPA) was founded in 1999 and currently has 93 associates, compromising 70% Spanish and 30% Central and South Americans. AEPA has recently achieved the milestone of Aviation Psychology being officially recognized as special professional field in Spain.

EAAP welcomes AEPA president Doctora Adela Gonzalez Marín, her team and all AEPA members. At the same time we would like to thank longstanding EAAP and AEPA member Claudio Rojo for his continous efforts to strenghten Spain-Italy relations..

For all info switch to EAPA website  

 EAAP and ABRAPAV are teaming up!

In may this year the Brasilian Association for Aviation Psychology (ABRAPAV) held their 2nd International Congress on Aviation Psychology dedicated to "Psychology in Health and Safety of Aviation" in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

ABRAPAV president Selma Ribeiro and Michaela Schwarz started to share their knowledge and experience in Aviation Psychology. The next step will be to provide access to both associations to research and developments in English and Portuguese to continue to learn from each other.

Both AEPA, the Spanish Association of Aviation Psychology , and IT-APA, the Italian Association of Aviation Psychology,  also work in a close relationship with ABRAPAV.

For all info switch to ABRAPAV website 