‘Govt to provide solution to psychological problems of people’

LAHORE :Punjab Governor Chaudhry Muhammad Sarwar has said that the government will improve psychological well-being of society and is working on providing solutions to psychological problems of the people.He said this while addressing the inaugural ceremony of three-day international conference “Applied Psychology: Practices and Interventions” organised in a local hotel by Punjab University Institute of Applied Psychology (IAP) in collaboration with Higher Education Commission Pakistan, Punjab Higher Education Commission and Pakistan Psychological Association.Punjab University Vice-Chancellor Prof Niaz Ahmad Akhtar, Member National Assembly Riaz Fatyana, Prof Dr Najma Najam, Prof Dr Nick Hopkins, IAP Director Prof Dr Farah Malik, foreign delegates, including psychologists researchers from the UK, USA, Australia, Spain, Greece, Ireland and other countries, senior faculty members and a large number of students were also present. Chaudhry Muhammad Sarwar said that terrorism, socio-economic issues, violence against women and mental health issues were badly affecting Pakistani society. He said that trained psychologists must come forward to resolve such issues.He said that the recommendations of psychologists would be included in the policies. The Punjab governor said that it was good omen that women were coming forward in all the fields. He said that it seemed that the future of the country would be in the hands of women in the next 10 years.Punjab University Vice-Chancellor Prof Niaz Ahmad said that there were sports psychology, industrial psychology, engineering psychology, etc, and psychologists should resolve all issues in all the fields.He said that Punjab University would give guidelines to the government to introduce reforms. He said that psychologists could help reduce many problems in society. Riaz Fatyana said that psychologists should work to provide leadership to bring Pakistani society out of problems.Institute of Applied Psychology Director Prof Dr Farah Malik said that it was the need of the hour to improve the common man’s life in Pakistan by understanding their psychological needs through scientific research findings.She said that the conference would focus the key issues of Pakistani society such as mental health issues, impact of interpersonal and intrapersonal problems, increasing extremism and intolerance, child abuse and its impact on personality and society, organisational behaviour, indigenously developed diagnostic and assessment measures and impact of socio-political instability on the mental health of people, etc. She said more than 200 papers would be presented in 20 parallel sessions of the conference.

from The News International - Lahore http://bit.ly/2Dps6P9