International Consortium: Portugal, United Kingdom, Canada, Massachusetts, USAGraduate Certificate Program on Violence, Crisis, and Human Rights
Purpose:
To prepare health, mental health, and social service professionals for teaching, expert practice, consultation, and research on violence prevention and care of victims/survivors.Description:
This program was launched in Lisbon, Portugal at the Instituto Superior de Psicologia (ISPA), the Institute for Applied Psychology, in 2000. Since then it has expanded to City University, London, United Kingdom, with prospects for extension and inter-university collaboration in Massachusetts, as well as Chile, Brazil, and Senegal.The project builds on extensive research documenting the need for more systematic preparation of health and social service personnel to support their pivotal role in violence prevention and the care of victim/survivors worldwide.
Key Features and Assumptions
Violence viewed as a CONTINUUM from interpersonal to global levels
Roots of violence: Cultural values, social structures, unfair policies
Interconnectedness of interpersonal violence across the life span and the public arena
Violence: Essentially an interdisciplinary topic
Need for bridge-building: Across cultures, NGOs (non-governmental organizations) & professional groups, theory & practice, feminist & mainstream perspectives
Violence as an abuse of power: Collaboration (vs. cooptation and control) will model how not to abuse power
Violence defined in MORAL, social action terms, not as psychopathology or madness
Need to recognize commonalities and distinctions regarding violence cross-culturally, without succumbing to social relativism, e.g., FGM (female genital mutilation).
Students of this and related topics have a right to be taught in their own language
Potential of health and social service providers to stem the tide of violence is enormous
Mission of healthcare agencies: Provide service. Mission of health and social science faculties: Prepare providers for expert service delivery, teaching & research.
Lee Ann Hoff 2009