From the Vice President - October 2019
Mental health and travel
Problems with mental health affect our profession in many ways. Mental health is affected by many factors. It can be more than just being pressured at work; it is how we relate to the environment around us and we all have a role to play in making that environment as constructive as possible. When dealing with people we need to understand what they are seeing and feeling and not assume it is exactly the same as our own perceptions.
One aspect is that we are in an environment where there is huge pressure to reduce costs and meet tight deadlines. It is not surprising that many suffer from oppressive feelings of not meeting never-ending expectations. It also means that the encouragement and reward of spending time thinking about broader issues is often forsaken by the pressure of the next job. Our approach should be not just to try and squeeze all we can out of an employee, but to facilitate their active contribution.
It is also an issue for the people we serve.
A report has just been released in the UK titled “Mental health and travel”. It gives the results from an on-line survey of people who have a mental health condition such as anxiety, depression, panic attacks, difficulty communicating and memory loss, to find out about the difficulties that they face when making a journey and ways that these can be overcome.
The purpose of this report is to draw attention to the many issues that face people with mental health conditions when they travel or why they do not travel, and to stimulate public debate about ways of addressing the issues.
Our profession is not just to move people about, it is to help their well-being in whatever way we can.
‘Call for Abstracts’ for the 2020 AITPM National Traffic and Transport Conference are now open.
The mammoth amount of work that goes into one of our National Conferences is a great credit to our Institute and all of our volunteers. So, while it has only been a few months since our last event, it is essential we support the organisers and keep the ball rolling for our next event in Brisbane.
Consequently, the Call for Abstracts in now open.
The conference features three streams:
• Traffic Engineering and Management;
• Transport Planning; and
• Transport and Land Use Modelling.
Our website has the details for making a submission including a list of possible areas for papers for each of the three streams.
Other new innovative topics within these streams are welcome.
Conference Details
The 2020 AITPM Conference will be held in Brisbane at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre. The general agenda is:
• Welcome Reception on the evening of Tuesday 28 July;
• Main conference on Wednesday 29 and Thursday 30 July,
• Workshops/forums on Friday 31 July.
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Gary Wood