ADPH Joint Symposium: What psychology can contribute to pandemic response
Tuesday 15th March (13:00-16:00)
Platform: MS Teams
ADPH, the University of Sussex, the Behavioural Science & Public Health Network and the British Psychological Society held a joint symposium on “What psychology can contribute to pandemic response”.
The aim of the symposium was to bring together the key organisational voices on psychology in the pandemic in order to provide a public consensus statement on its essential role. It focused on lessons learnt from Psychology for the next pandemic and how Psychology positions itself to influence the system more widely. Around 80 people attended the session, and it was very well received.
The speaker presentations covered the following items:
- A view from SPY-B/SAGE on what we have learnt from Psychology for the next pandemic, presented by Prof. Brooke Rogers OBE.
- A view from PHE/UKHSA on what Psychology has contributed to the pandemic response, presented by Prof. Richard Amlôt.
- The British Psychology Society, Covid-19 Behavioural Science and Disease Prevention Task-Force: What have we done? What are the gaps? presented by Prof. Angel Chater.
- A public health perspective on Psychology in pandemic preparedness and response: strengths, gaps and opportunities, presented by Prof. Jim McManus.
- What has Psychology contributed to Covid-19 and what do we need to keep for the future?, presented by Prof. Stephen Reicher.
A recording of the session is available to view here, below you will find links to the Agenda and Speaker Biographies.
The organizing group will be taking the initial draft statement and the lessons and feedback from the session, to write a consensus statement. If you wish to be part of the consultation (i.e. provide input to the drafts) then please let us know by emailing membership@adph.org.uk.