UPSI offering degree in Clinical Mental Health Counselling from 2019

TANJUNG MALIM, Aug 8 (Bernama -- Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris (UPSI), here, targets to offer the Bachelor of Science (BSc) degree in clinical mental health counselling by 2019, the first such study programme in this country.

The university realises the importance of mental health amid growing public concern over mental health problems caused by factors such as personal problems, pressure from others around them, family problems and extreme work pressure.

The National Health and Morbidity Survey 2015 showed that 29.2 per cent or about 4.2 million out of 14.4 million people aged 16 years and above in this country had mental health problems and most of them were workers. This was a worrying increase of 11.2 per cent from the figure in 2006.

Hence, the new degree programme to be offered by UPSI will focus on enhancing the efficiency and skills of counsellors in the field.

The university’s Faculty of Education and Human Development dean, Assoc Prof Dr Abdul Rahim Razali said hopefully, the programme to be offered under the faculty’s Psychology and Counselling Department could start next year.

"This degree programme is not just for counsellors and mental health professionals working in a specialised setting, but for all in various settings such as the counsellors in schools, organisations, rehabilitation centres and welfare bodies.”

He said this after the closing of the four-day Clinical Mental Health Counselling Certification Programme involving 54 participants from the Health Ministry and Education Ministry, as well as private practitioners and held at UPSI Sultan Azlan Shah Campus.

Abdul Rahim said the degree programme would take two-and- a-half years for full-time students and up to five years for part-time students.

The programme coordinator, Assoc Prof Dr Mohammad Nasir Bistamam said offering the course was timely due to mounting cases of family issues and mental health problems of late with little psychosocial support, causing individuals to act irrationally or go to the extreme.

He said the faculty had enough specialists, comprising 43 lecturers in the fields of psychology and counselling while in establishing the programme, the market research done and other aspects were also taken into account.

On the four-day certification programme, its coordinator  Assoc Prof Dr Samsiah Mohd Jais said it was the first to be developed aimed at enhancing the participants’ knowledge, skills and efficiency in clinical mental health counselling.

-- BERNAMA