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On 25-27 April Rīga Stradiņš University (RSU) will host the 5th International Scientific Practical Conference ‘Health and Personality Development: an Interdisciplinary Approach’ which will bring together Latvian and international professionals in the fields of psychology, communication, public health, rehabilitation, medicine and others. The conference will include presentations, lectures and masterclasses. Last year’s conference gathered approximately 450 professionals from various fields and other interested parties.

Overall the conference programme includes over 60 reports, lectures and masterclasses by both Latvian and international experts. Participants include lecturers, researchers and students, including doctoral students. The programme will focus on issues of interdisciplinarity, international cooperation, neuropsychology and qualitative research.

The conference will be launched on Thursday 25 April by a symposium dedicated to the third project, ‘Challenges and Solutions for the Latvian State and Society within the International Context,’ of the National Research Programme ‘Latvian Heritage and Future Challenges for the Sustainability of the Country’. Its goal is to explore and promote opportunities for closer collaboration between science and practice. Issues with the implementation of the Latvian Clinical Personality Test will be evaluated on the first day. Later that afternoon the work will be divided into three sections and there will be an opportunity to listen to 33 reports from the RSU Faculty of Public Health and Social Welfare, the Faculty of Rehabilitation, the Faculty of Communication and the Faculty of Medicine as well as doctoral students presenting their research papers and doctoral theses. These works were drafted during the study process and relate to the implementation of psychological help when working with different patient groups. The first day of the conference will be concluded by a panel discussion on the opportunities and challenges of supervision in various professional environments.

On Friday 26 April conference participants will be able to listen to eight guest lecturers from USA, the UK, Portugal and Lithuania. These guest lecturers will explore research trends in psychology based on innovative approaches and the use of modern technologies and will also report on development issues in research. The lecturers are cooperation partners of the Department of Health Psychology and Pedagogy and are involved in counselling Psychology doctoral students on their research. They are also involved in research themselves and make use of the equipment available in the Psychology Laboratory of the Faculty of Public Health and Social Welfare. Since its foundation five years ago the Department of Health Psychology and Pedagogy has been intensively initiating and engaging in various studies.

Masterclasses will be conducted on the closing day of the conference on 27 April. These will be led by guest lecturers and teaching staff from Latvian higher education institutions as well as professionals on topics such as the neurobiological foundations for treating depression, ageing and the psychobiology of dementia, the working methods of supervision and art therapy. The conference is organised by the Department of Health Psychology and Pedagogy at the RSU Faculty of Public Health and Social Welfare.

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