Workshop Focuses On Strategies To Prevent Youth Violence

Ensuring that youth learn how to express their emotions appropriately in a society where violence appears to be rampant so they can mature into well-functioning adults is one of this country’s most important investments. To this end, Paul J. Fink, M.D., and Carl Bell, M.D., will put their expertise to work on issues affecting youth in a workshop at this year’s annual meeting in San Francisco titled “Youth Violence: Principles of Prevention.” The workshop, sponsored by the APA Alliance, will be held Monday, May 19, at 9 a.m. in Salons 14 and 15, lower B-2 level, Marriott.

The violent crime rate rose 2 percent last year for the first time in several years. It is thought this trend will continue because the teen and young adult population will increase in the years ahead. Teenage snipers, murders in schools, youths killing at an unprecedented rate: How can the tide be turned?

Fink is a former APA president and a professor of psychiatry at Temple University School of Medicine in Philadelphia. He is also a consultant for the Philadelphia Department of Human Services and the School District of Philadelphia. Bell is a child psychiatrist and president and CEO of Community Mental Health Council and Foundation Inc., a nonprofit comprehensive community mental health center on Chicago’s south side.

“At the workshop,” Fink said, “I will be discussing our experiences in Philadelphia in attempting to work with young people who are in trouble. I will stress the importance of early identification of at-risk children and efforts we need to make to prevent the amount of violence that occurs and our efforts to save children who are destined to go in the wrong direction. I will also spend time discussing the role of parenting on the development of violent behavior, as well as the issue of trauma and how one can deal with the sequelae of trauma so it does not become a permanent characterological damage to the child.” ▪