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| Peter Hodgkinson graduated from Durham University with a
First Class Honours degree (BA) in Psychology in 1976, and from the Institute
of Psychiatry, London University, with an MPhil in Clinical Psychology in
1978. He worked in adult psychiatry in North-West Kent, where he developed an interest in bereavement, publishing work on
therapy of abnormal grief. He worked extensively over the following years
training bereavement counsellors. In 1980 he moved to the St Charles Youth Treatment Centre, Brentwood, Essex, one of two national high-security units, to work with adolescents who had committed grave offences. He developed a specialism in working with families where one member had murdered another. In 1983 he was appointed Principal Clinical Psychologist to the South
East Thames Regional Health Authority Forensic Psychiatry Service, helping
establish the regional secure unit at Bexley Hospital, Kent, the Bracton
Clinic. He conducted research on the use of seclusion, institutional
patterns of assaults on staff and the development of the forensic
psychiatry service. |
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In 1987 Peter was asked to help Kent County Council plan
their response to the Zeebrugge Disaster.
He directed the work of a team of 10 working with the passenger survivors and bereaved. |
| In conjunction with Dr Colin Murray Parkes, Peter devised a
structured interview format which formed the basis of a research study
into psychological effects within the first year, and with
Professor William Yule and colleagues at the Institute of Psychiatry,
devised a three-year questionnaire follow-up. A variety of papers were
published as a result of this joint endeavour.
In 1988 and successive years, Peter and Michael Stewart, who had directed aftercare following the 1985 Bradford Fire were asked to work in a consultative and training capacity for social services departments and health authorities in the wake of the Piper Alpha Disaster, the Clapham Train Crash, the Lockerbie Disaster, the Kegworth Disaster and the Hillsborough Disaster. In 1989 they established the Centre for Crisis Psychology, an organisation specialising in post-trauma aftercare in a variety of commercial, industrial and public settings. Over the past 15 years, Peter's work has included the following: (1) Clinical work following a range of traumas including violent death; suicide; armed crime; hostage-taking; transport accidents; terrorist bombings, fires etc. (2) Assessment of psychological trauma within a medico-legal context and stress-at-work issues within businesses. (3) Training teams in both public services and private organisations in the management of trauma. In 1989 Peter was invited to Ben Gurion University, Israel, to help establish provision following a chemical spillage, a bus hostage situation, and a toxic waste fire. In 1990 he returned as a consultant to the Community Stress Prevention Centre, Kyriat Shmona; the Ministry of Education and the Civil Defence. Also in 1990 he was invited to Australia on a 2 week lecture tour, holding meetings for Australians whose relatives were held hostage during the First Gulf War. Peter has been a speaker at many conferences world-wide including the World Mental Health Congress, 1985; the First and Second European Conferences on Traumatic Stress Studies; the 4th International Conference on Psychological Stress and Adjustment in Time of War and Peace; the International Conference on Mass Burns Casualties (1989); and the EU "Concerted Action" Symposium on PTSD (1989). In 1989 he organised the international conference "The Zeebrugge Disaster Two Years On - Lessons Learnt" in Brussels. In 1998 he was invited to give the keynote address at the opening of the Belgian National Centre for Crisis Psychology and again at the 1999 EU-sponsored International Conference on Disaster Management.
Peter is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine, and an Honorary lecturer at London University.
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| His British Psychological Society membership number is 9801. |
