Wednesday, April 11, 2012

A chance to blog about killing, sport, mental health or learning disablities


In my day job I work for the British Psychological Society. We have our Annual Conference in London next week and we are inviting bloggers and people from charities and pressure groups with a particular interest in the topic to three sessions.

They are...

A symposium on people with intellectual disabilities (also called learning disabilities and previously known as mental handicap) and sport. It will look both at how seeing athletes with intellectual disabilities taking part in elite sport may change the public perception of the public perception of people with intellectual disabilities in general and at how taking part in sport may benefit people with such disabilities themselves. Events at Sydney in 2000, where several members of the winning Spanish basketball team in the Paralympics turned out not to have intellectual disabilities at all, will also be discussed. This scandal led to the exclusion of events for people with intellectual disabilities from the Paralympics from subsequent games, but these events have been restored to the programme for London 2012. This symposium is on Thursday 19 April (12:00 to 13:00).

A showing of the documentary Hidden Battles, a documentary about the psychological impact
that killing has on five freedom fighters and soldiers. The film will be followed by an expert panel discussion. This session also takes place on Thursday 19 April (15:30 to 17:30).

A roundtable discussion on sport and mental health. This will take in both the psychological pressures that elite sport can exert on athletes and also look at ways that sport can benefit people problems with their mental health. This takes place on the morning of Friday 20 April.

If you have a work interest in one of these sessions or would like to blog about one of them, please send me an email by Friday evening.

Attendance is by invitation only and I cannot guarantee to get everyone who asks in. But if you have a good reason for wanting to attend I should be able to wangle you an invite.

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