Two members of the EFPA Board of Promotion and Prevention have been honoured with awards

Niels Peter Rygaard, received 2020 American Psychological Association (APA) International Humanitarian Award  

Serdar M. Değirmencioğlu from EFPA SC on Community Psychology has been awarded the  Josephine “Scout” Wollman Fuller Awards for 2020 by the Psychologists For Social Responsibility (PsySR)

The Josephine “Scout” Wollman Fuller Award was initiated in 2008 by Psychologists for Social Responsibility and the parents and family of “Scout” to honor the memory and life of “Scout” who passed away in 2007 following her struggle with cancer. Scout was only eight years old when she passed away. The Award is given annually to an individual or organization involved with peace and social justice for children.   

“Scout” was the daughter of Neil Wollman, a well-known peace advocate and activist and a longtime member of PsySR. Throughout her brief but caring life, Scout was a strong voice for peace in her school and community. As the award states: “‘Scout’ was wise, caring, and concerned for the needy of the world. She was both a learner and a teacher.”

Read more about the Josephine “Scout” Wollman Fuller Awards on the PsySR website 

 Adapting to a virtual environment

Members of the European Federation of Psychology Students' Associations - EFPSA- are currently at the middle of their 2020-2021 mandate. We are all working hard and although the pandemic changed many of our plans and did not allow us to meet in person, the students are achieving a lot and learning how to adapt to an online environment. Due to the restrictions we also had to transfer our events into a virtual environment. Until now we had two successful online events and we are at the moment planning the half mandate internal meeting for our Working Community. 

 Research Summer School 

The topic of this year's Research Summer School was: Occupational & Health Psychology - Fostering a Happier Workplace in and out of the Pandemic. The Research Summer School is one of EFPSA’s most scientifically inclined events. During the Research Summer School,  6 PhD students ( supervisors) and 36 student researchers gather to create 6 cross cultural research projects, within these seven days the teams create a plan and layout for the next twelve months of their research project.

EFPSA’s Research Summer School 2020 was  supposed to take place in Zadar, Croatia during July, but the  Organising Committee had to make the difficult decision of moving all of their hard work to an online platform. This was EFPSA’s first online event, and we must say that we were genuinely surprised by the amount of participants that applied, but also by all the positive feedback we have received. Participants did not only manage to follow lectures and have productive team meetings, but also developed friendships through their laptop screens on Zoom and emerged into different cultural experiences all from the comfort of their rooms.

The topic was selected back in October 2019, little did we know that the field of Occupational Health psychology would be one of the most relevant in the year 2020. Wanting to scientifically contribute to society with our programme, we accomodated the topic to the pandemic situation and received six research projects titled :

• "Sport as a workplace-fostering a healthy, inclusive and socially just workplace for athletes, coaches and support staff";
• "Perceptions of a singles-friendly work culture and work-life balance in single adults across different countries" ;
• "Evaluation of theory based interventions for burnout";
• "Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and employees' well-being";
• "Is it really the end? - creating space and support for dying patients' loved ones";
• "Dealing with the sexuality of individuals with severe and disabling mental disorders hospitalised in psychiatry: impacts, challenges and support for the practice towards professionals."

Needless to say the experience of our first online event has encouraged us to find solutions to all new situations we may find ourselves within this unusual mandate, we have grown more resilient and creative, and are looking forward to new challenges that might occur.

 The blind spot of higher education: mental health of students “Overlooked and undervalued, students included?”

Together with three other organisations The European Students’ Union (ESU), The International Federation of Medical Students Associations (IFMSA) and Youth Health Organization (YHO), EFPSA organised an online event to mark the World Mental Health Day. The aim was to acknowledge the ever-growing need to start addressing the mental health of students on multiple levels through active student involvement and advocacy. We see the higher education environment as a great entry route to begin actively working on reducing stigma around mental health, helping students to successfully fulfill their academic goals through a flexible and inclusive academic setting. The online event consisted of two panel sessions on the topic of “Integration of mental health into higher education: is it really necessary and how can it be made a reality?” and “How to talk about mental health: crash course edition”, as well as several free workshops for students.

 EFPSA Academy 

 EFPSA Campaigns

by 

Vita Bogdanić 
President of EFPSA (European Federation of Psychology Students' Associations)