Aberdeen has been chosen as the city of choice to host the 2016 European Health Psychology Society (EHPS) conference. Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference centre (AECC) will host the conference next year, August 24-27, 2016.
The conference is run jointly with the EHPS and the British Psychological Society: Division of Health Psychology (DHP) and next year’s conference marks the society’s 30th anniversary and will be based on the topic of Behaviour Change: Making an Impact on Health and Health Services. The conference will allow health psychologists, EHPS and DHP members to engage with experts from a wide range of health relevant fields.
The conference’s ultimate aim is to raise awareness and discuss world leading research in their discipline. EHPS is a professional organisation formed to promote practical and theoretical research in applications of health psychology within Europe as well as the exchange of information related to health psychology with other associations throughout the world.
The conference will be held in collaboration with the University of Aberdeen’s Institute of Applied Health Sciences which have invested substantially in this area as a major topic in allied disciplines to allow a range of multi-disciplinary workshops to be hosted alongside the conference. Workshops will take place at the University of Aberdeen on August 22-23, 2016 before the main conference at AECC.
Chair of EHPS Conference 2016 and Chair in Health Psychology at the University of Aberdeen, Professor Marijn de Bruin, said: “The members of the EHPS and DHP conduct world leading research with regards to understanding and changing unhealthy behaviours. It is widely recognised by health (care) organisations and policy makers that this expertise is essential for promoting people’s health and well-being and can substantially reduce health care expenditures by preventing illness, treating medical conditions more efficiently, or helping people better deal with their illness. The theme of this conference aims to focus on what health psychology has already done, and what it can do in the future, to positively impact people’s health and the quality and efficiency of health services. It is exciting that the Aberdeen Health Psychology Group from the University of Aberdeen can organise this conference in Aberdeen in 2016, receiving the 1000+ members from both organisations.”
Graeme Cumming, Interim Managing Director of AECC said, “We are delighted to be welcoming EHPS and DHP to the centre in 2016. They will be joining a strong host of association conferences who have chosen AECC in 2016 such as the Junior Chamber and Intelligent Energy. AECC have been working continuously to bring association conferences to Aberdeen which sees a considerable boost in both economic impact and business tourism in the region."