Annual Report 2001
Submitted by Joanne Mills

My first year as Chair of the Post Trauma Services Committee was interesting and informative. It has been great to work with such dedicated and knowledgeable Psychologists and I thank them for all their hard work and help. I’ve certainly learned a great deal from each of them.

Our committee met seven times in 2001 and membership consisted of Victor Day, Pam Dixon, Charles Hayes, Janice Howes, Joanne Mills (new Chair for 2001), Michael Thomson, and we welcomed new member Darlene Whitman. Ann Wetmore, a long time dedicated member of the Post Trauma Services Committee took a well-deserved break from committee meetings this past year, although she promises us she will return.

The Post Trauma Services Committee set two main goals for 2001 and both were achieved: one was to host a workshop and conversation hour for all network volunteers and the other was to have a web site developed and implemented.

Planning for the spring workshop got underway early in the new year and we were pleased to offer a two hour session facilitated by committee members Dr. Janice Howes and Dr. Charles Hayes entitled “Psychological Impact of Trauma” as part of the APNS annual spring convention. This session was offered free of charge to all the volunteers on our Post Trauma Services network and a conversation hour followed. It was great to meet many of the volunteers on our network list and we all learned a great deal from our colleagues Janice and Charles.

This past fall in an effort to bring our committee into the millennium we posted our Post Trauma Services web site linked from the APNS site:
http://www.apns.ca/posttrauma.html
This site enables us to share our work with all our APNS members and really, with the entire World Wide Web! Many thanks to APNS Executive Director Sandra Bonneau for all her support in getting this site up and running.

Aside from these two main projects, the committee continued it’s work with maintaining our relationships with provincial EMO representatives, meeting several times with John Webb, Acting Director of Emergency Social Services, and with Joy Masselink, a representative with the Emergency Measures Organization (EMO). The Emergency Measures Organization included a chapter on our Post Trauma Services Committee in the new provincial EMO handbook that is to be distributed throughout Nova Scotia.

2002 promises to be an equally busy year and we all look forward to continuing our mandate of preparing for psychological services in the event of a disaster, and providing education and training experiences for psychologists interested in post trauma work. I again look forward to another year ahead as the chair of this dedicated and informative group of volunteers.