SSBP 27th International Research Symposium

Bill’s dedication to clinical psychology encompassed many different areas. In the 1960’s, his research with Michael Rutter, Jack Tizard and others on educational, psychiatric and physical disorders in school-age children on the Isle of Wight was a landmark in the development of epidemiological child psychiatry and psychology. Subsequently he became recognised world-wide for his ground-breaking work on interventions for children suffering from war and tragedy. His involvement in post-traumatic stress disorder among children began with the sinking of the Herald of Free Enterprise ferry in 1987. Sadly, since then, there has been no diminution in the numbers of children exposed to profound loss and disaster and his work has helped thousands with war-related traumas.  During the 1980’s and 1990’s Bill was a member of the British Health Expert Group developing trauma treatments for children affected by the Sri Lankan civil war, and he was an advisor to UNICEF during the civil war in the former Yugoslavia. Most recently he was involved in training Ukrainian mental health professionals to use the Teaching Recovery Techniques (TRT) intervention which has now been formally adopted by the Ukrainian Ministry of Science and Education.  Bill was a founding trustee of the Children and War Foundation, dedicated to improving children’s lives in wars and disasters, and in 2005 he received a lifetime achievement award from the International Society for the Study of Traumatic Stress for his work with children. (For more details see his obituary in the London Times   https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/professor-william-yule-vbm5087cr)