Dear Editor
ONCE again The Caribbean Voice (TCV) is forced to address the issue of untrained personnel presenting themselves to the public as counsellors. While one such person now parades as a social worker, even though she has no social work credentials, another person with an undergraduate degree that is not in psychology is working full time as a counsellor with one of Guyana’s leading NGOs.

The fact is that “quack” counsellors have neither the knowledge nor the skills to diagnose and treat mental health issues and their actions usually lead to greater harm to those they deem to help. Occasionally, such harm can be fatal as happened earlier this year when a young lady, counselled by a quack, ended up taking her life.

It is criminal for anyone without a medical degree to practise as a doctor or for anyone with no legal credentials to practise as a lawyer. And since counsellors have the capacity to bring back someone walking the tightrope between sanity and insanity and even save lives, it should also be criminal for anyone without requisite credentials – a minimum of a degree in psychology (preferably a masters) and supervised clinical internship experience.

So TCV appeals to the all political parties to ensure that their mental health plans include putting protocols in place to license counsellors (TCV can help with this) and legislation in place to criminalise the actions of unqualified individuals who offer counselling services to the public.

Sincerely
The Caribbean Voice