Forum: Improve mental healthcare by regulating counsellors and preventing over-medicalisation

I refer to the Opinion piece “Mental health is now on the national agenda – let’s cut to the chase” (Jan 10).

As a professional working in the mental health landscape for nearly two decades, I welcome the writer’s key points: regulating professionals who provide talk therapy, which will be important for better quality of care in the long run, and to avoid over-medicalising all mental health challenges a person may face.

I urge the appropriate accreditation bodies like the Singapore Psychological Society and Singapore Association for Counselling to adopt a regulatory framework to ensure good quality of care, and to minimise rogue therapists who are not equipped to provide proper counselling and psychotherapy to troubled individuals. This is part of good ethical practice and should be mandatory as Singapore is progressing in its mental health literacy and awareness.

The dangers of over-medicalising also cannot be overstated. While Singapore wants to create greater awareness of mental health issues and have good mental health hygiene, not every episode of distress requires a person to see a doctor and be given access to psychotropic drugs.

We must strike a balance between providing individuals with a safe space to build personal resilience to weather life’s many challenges, and giving anti-depressant medication to every person who asks for it when he is not properly diagnosed by a specialist doctor.

Over-dependence on such medication can also create another social problem for Singapore, which has happened in many developed nations.

Adopting these two approaches will go a long way to building a better Singapore, one that does not stigmatise mental health distress and help-seeking behaviour, but which strikes a balance in providing holistic care for all Singaporeans. 

Benjamin Yeo