You cannot practise counselling without a licence – Prof. Ofori-Atta

The Ghana Psychological Council, a body with a mandate to licence all qualified professionals, paraprofessionals and lay counselling practitioners will soon clamp down on charlatans who provide quack psychological services.

Professor Angela Ofori-Atta, Chairperson of the Ghana Psychological Council said a significant proportion of practitioners who called themselves psychologists or counsellors are practising without a proper licence and do not possess the requisite knowledge and skills.

“To practice as a psychologist in Ghana, one ought to have at least a Master’s degree from an accredited institution and one-year full time supervised internship at a recognized institution as well as pass a licensure examination.”

Prof. Ofori-Atta said this at a seminar organized by the Ghana Psychological Council to sensitize the media on the activities of the Council.

The Ghana Psychological Council’s mandate includes accrediting psychological course contents, registration and licensing of all qualified practitioners, licensing of premises and corporate bodies, prescription and enforcement of professional standards and the exercise of disciplinary power as needed.

Prof. Ofori-Atta advised the media to invite only qualified and licence professionals to appear on their TV or radio programmes.

“Many are seen on radio and TV giving questionable if not downright dangerous advice to the public…charging exorbitant fees or extorting monies.

Media houses can always find out who the quacks are by accessing the gazetted names of licensed from the Ghana Psychological Council,” she said.

Dr Akwasi Osei, Chief Executive Officer of the Mental Health Authority, who educated the media Behavioural addiction and Gaming said apart from the tradition addition to alcohol or drugs, many Ghanaians are getting addicted to gaming, video games, internet and phones.

He urged the media to start organizing educational programmes on video games, internet and phone types of addictions to save many people from being unable to function properly with them.

Dr Osei also advised the media to address people with conditions in their reportage as persons first before the condition, saying, “don’t say a mad person, say a person with mental illness, don’t describe people with their conditions.

“By doing that you help fight stigma associated with certain conditions,” he said