AOSW

 

Today, as I write this column, 200 courageous men started the Tour de France. The event includes 3 weeks of cycling, with a Grand Départ in Utrecht in the Netherlands, while an all-time record breaking heat wave is striking Europe and warnings about dehydration and sunburn are continuously being broadcasted. Actually, thousands of people are dying because of the hot weather. Dutch undertakers speak of a 30 percent increase in deaths, while French undertakers estimate that more than 10,000 may have died in France. Although this is headline news in Europe, the recent heat wave in India (47°C/117° F!) passed almost unnoticed. 

How much do we know about and how much do we care about other parts of the world? ISTSS is certainly the place to care about and to study trauma and its consequences all over the world. And this will be reflected in the upcoming 31st Annual Meeting program in New Orleans, Louisiana (Nov. 5 – 7, 2015).

Today, as I write this column, 200 courageous men started the Tour de France. The event includes 3 weeks of cycling, with a Grand Départ in Utrecht in the Netherlands, while an all-time record breaking heat wave is striking Europe and warnings about dehydration and sunburn are continuously being broadcasted. Actually, thousands of people are dying because of the hot weather. Dutch undertakers speak of a 30 percent increase in deaths, while French undertakers estimate that more than 10,000 may have died in France. Although this is headline news in Europe, the recent heat wave in India (47°C/117° F!) passed almost unnoticed. 

How much do we know about and how much do we care about other parts of the world? ISTSS is certainly the place to care about and to study trauma and its consequences all over the world. And this will be reflected in the upcoming 31st Annual Meeting program in New Orleans, Louisiana USA (November 5 – 7, 2015).

There are two persons I would like to mention here, both former ISTSS presidents, who are known to care a great deal about those in other areas in the world and both of whom were recently recognized with awards. Dr. Stuart Turner, the recent recipient of the Wolter de Loos Award for Distinguished Contribution to Psychotraumatology in Europe at the ESTSS conference in Vilnius. The other is Ueli Schnyder, MD, who during the 14th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society for Traumatic Stress Studies (JSTSS) in Kyoto, gave an honorary lecture and received a Certificate of Appreciation.