Dan Neville (Limerick, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to the Bill, which is fully supported by all in the House. This is the second amendment to the Health and Social Care Professionals Act 2005. I welcome the amendment. I wish to restate what I said during the debate in 2005 on the proposal that psychotherapy and counselling be included as designated professions. At present, there is no regulation in this country for the registration of psychotherapists and counsellors and no State control over the qualifications held by those practising in the area. It is dangerous for untrained and unskilled people to probe a person's unconscious. They are dealing with human vulnerability and serious damage could be done to such delicate people.

The Act provides for the registration of persons qualifying under the title of a designated profession for the determination of complaints relating to their fitness to practise. Some 12 professions are listed as designated professions under the Act and the Bill introduces two further professions. The professions of psychotherapy and counselling are not included. When I challenged the former Minister of State with responsibility for mental health, Mr. Tim O'Malley, who dealt with the Bill in 2004, he stated that the professions included in the legislation had become so regulated by a process of discussion and consensus. However, at the time psychotherapists and counsellors failed to agree an approach to such registration. The then Minister of State indicated that statutory regulation in such circumstances would have serious legal implications, which we accepted. He accepted the principle that all psychotherapists and counsellors should be properly qualified and pointed out that he would not be in a position to regulate the area without consultation with the professional groups involved. He was anxious to obtain agreement.

In response to the position of the then Minister of State, 22 organisations established a psychological therapies forum for counselling and psychotherapy. The forum accepted that it is imperative that the public is protected by the promotion of high standards of conduct, education, training and competence among the professionals of counselling and psychotherapy. The forum pointed out that all of its constituent bodies provided a code of ethics by which their members must abide. The forum stated that, while this form of self-regulation provided protection to clients of the organisations, it fell short of optimal protection as, under our common law system, it was possible for any person to take the title of counsellor or psychotherapist and practise accordingly, without training or competence. Any person could put up a sign to say that he or she is a counsellor or psychotherapist and charge to perform psychotherapy and counselling, but I am sure Members would agree that it is extremely dangerous for such untrained people do so.

I am aware of the provision of certain courses. One course that ran for a duration of eight weekends lead to one gaining a diploma in eating disorders. I have a copy of the brochure. I was informed the course was only open to professionals. I asked my parliamentary assistant to apply for the course which was to run for eight weekends. The area of eating disorders is one of the most difficult areas involving experience in psychological, psychiatric and physical difficulties. It is a psychiatric disorder that can be fatal for young people. My parliamentary assistant was accepted on the course. The eight-week diploma started at 11 a.m. on Saturday and ended at approximately 4 p.m. on Sunday. The diploma was provided by the Eating Disorder Resource Centre of Ireland. My parliamentary assistant received a note, as follows:

Enclosed booking form for 2010. Training commences this Saturday 27 March. I don’t have any hard copies of the module info as they are being printed up for next course (2011). It is available online... If you can ring me to confirm if you wish to attend 2010 training course that would be great.

The note was signed by the director and founder, a certified trainer in practitioner skills for eating disorders and obesity. The course duration was eight short weekends to obtain the diploma.

I am aware of another weekend course which lead to a higher diploma in suicide studies. It is highly dangerous for people to counsel anyone with suicide ideation following such a short course, as one would not be fully competent or trained to do so. My objective is to include psychotherapy and counselling in the Bill. A leaflet advertising the advanced course in suicide studies states: "Participants will gain sufficient knowledge, skills strategies, and theoretical background to enable them to serve those who are at risk of taking their own lives, those who are survivors of suicide, and the family members of those who have taken their lives." Two weekends cover suicide prevention. Another two weekends cover suicide intervention, while a further two weekends in January cover suicide postvention. Following the course, one is awarded an advanced diploma in suicide studies.

The Health and Social Care Professionals Act, an amendment to which we are discussing, provides a mechanism to drive forward the clinical governance agenda. It creates a framework through which practitioners are accountable for continually improving the quality of their service and safeguarding high standards of care by creating an environment in which excellence will flourish and optimal protection is offered to members of the public who access psychotherapy and counselling.

I am conscious that my time is running out. I compliment the Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, on her great interest in this area. It is two years since I raised the matter so she can hardly say I am raising it every day of the week. I also compliment the previous Minister for Health, Deputy Reilly, who wrote to me on 20 March 2014. I will read from the letter:

I have today written to Mr. Tom Jordan, Chairman of the Health and Social Care Professionals Council, informing him that I intend, in the public interest, to designate by regulation the profession(s) of counsellor and psychotherapist under section 4(2) of the Health and Social Care Professionals Act 2005.

Under section 4(2) of the Act, I am obliged to consult with the council in the first instance and to give interested persons, organisations and bodies an opportunity to make representations to me concerning the proposed designation. I have requested my officials to put the necessary arrangements in place to initiate this consultation process as soon as possible.

I am also awaiting the report of Quality and Qualifications Ireland, QQI, on the academic standards necessary for the accreditation of courses in counselling and psychotherapy. This is an essential element as it will inform, for the purpose of registration, the assessment by the H&SCPC [Health and Social Care Professionals Council] of the qualifications of those currently in practice. QQI has now advised that this report will be available in May, 2014.

Once the outcome of the consultation process has been assessed, I will then be in a position to make the decisions necessary to proceed with regulations designating the profession(s) to be regulated and prescribing the title(s) to be protected. The registration board will then be established by [statutory instrument] SI and the Public Appointments Service will be requested to advertise for expressions of interest in being appointed to the registration board.

Can the Minister of State inform us how this has since developed? Mr. Tom Jordan asked to meet me with the chief executive of the Health and Social Care Professionals Council and he informed me of the difficulties he experienced. It is often worth doing something difficult. I compliment the former Minister for Health, Deputy James Reilly, on acting on this issue because some forces suggest this should not happen and things should be more open. I understand how complicated the process of regulation can be and the difficulties involved but it has been done in other countries. I spoke at a conference on this elsewhere in Europe and regulation was in place in that country.

It is important to protect the public from unqualified mavericks who want to make a quick buck from the vulnerabilities and difficulties experienced by those with mental illness and emotional problems. We must protect such individuals as they seek help and doing so will create a framework in which practitioners are accountable for improving service quality. We must safeguard high standards of care by creating an environment in which excellence will flourish and optimal protection is offered to people accessing psychotherapy and counselling.

I have a copy of the report of the Psychological Therapies Forum on public protection and the statutory regulation of counsellors and psychotherapists in Ireland. It is an excellent document, though I do not say we should treat it as a bible for this framework. It will be helpful to the Health and Social Care Professionals Council. Some 12 professional organisations are involved and their practitioners are regulated. I do not suggest that psychotherapists and counsellors are not regulated - they are regulated by their professions. We aim to regulate those not already members of those professions. The 22 organisations involved produced the document as a response to the difficulties faced by the former Minister, Tim O'Malley, relating to the original Bill - those difficulties related in part to psychotherapists and counsellors. I congratulate the 22 organisations involved and they include Accord, the Catholic marriage care service, the Association for Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy in Ireland, the Irish Association of Cognitive Analytical Therapy, the Irish Association of Alcohol and Addiction Counsellors, the Irish Association of Christian Counsellors, the Irish Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, the Irish College of Psychiatrists, the Irish Council for Psychotherapy, which incorporates cognitive behavioural therapy, the Family Therapy Association of Ireland, the Irish Analytical Psychology Association, the Irish Association of Humanistic and Integrative Psychotherapy and the Irish Forum for Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy. I want to give a flavour of how broad this area is.

I know the Minister, Deputy Varadkar, is supportive of this and I have thanked the former Minister, Deputy James Reilly. I had not yet raised this with the new Minister, Deputy Varadkar, but I felt this was an opportunity to do so.

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