The Masters in Psychology course at the University will be held regularly as from next October, Education Minister Louis Galea said in parliament yesterday.

He was reacting to calls for the holding of the course made from both sides of the House during the debate on the Psychology Profession Bill. The main purpose of the bill is to regulate the profession of psychologists. Psychologists would require a masters in psychology to be eligible for a warrant to practice the profession.

Dr Galea pointed out that the university had offered a two-year M.Psy course in 1999. There were 12 students, of whom 11 had concluded the course. A number qualified in clinical psychology, counselling psychology educational psychology.

The course would reopen in October and the government was directing the university to continue holding the course on a regular basis, probably every two years, so that the country could have a continuous supply of psychologists.

Since this was a post-graduate course, part of which was to be held in the evening, fees would be charged.

Ministries who required the service of psychologists had to see how to encourage people to take up these courses and offer scholarships to ensure that they would have the required number of people to employ.

In the past 30 years, around 11 psychologists in the education sector were trained professionally in Malta and Gozo. Six were working in the schools' psychological services sector and three at the university.

In the health division there were nine psychologists and in the social policy sector six psychologists, a psychotherapist working with Appogg and 10 psychologists and a psychotherapist with Sedqa.

Dr Galea said demand for psychologists was stronger than the intake of one course. The course, he said, had to have a small intake, not least because an essential element was supervised practice and there were very few psychologists for this work.

Dr Galea said he was not satisfied with the service being given in the education sector, where there were not enough qualified staff for psychology services and the organisational model implemented until now did not effectively provide for continuation of service.

Psychology services could not be given according to a school timetable which did not provide for the service to continue when the children were on holiday. He was working so that such a break in the service did not take place.

Furthermore, support could not continue to be given in the centralised way it had been given until now. Unfortunately, it was impossible to give a complete service in every school due to a lack of resources. It was for this aim that the ministry was considering having school networks, at primary level for the moment, providing support services with each network.

Concluding, Dr Galea said that in committee stage one would reconsider how B.Psy graduates could work as assistants.

Earlier in the debate, Mario Galea (PN) spoke on the importance of psychology all over the world and underlined the need for psychologists to keep up to date with research and development.

He said the definition of psychology in the English version of the bill could be replaced by that which covered the diverse aspects of the profession.

The original definition lacked a reference to the fact that part of the main work of psychologists was research.

Mr Galea also underlined the role of B.Psy graduates (who in terms of this bill cannot be granted a warrant of psychologists as they need to be graduates in M. Psy).

He observed that between 1995 and 2003, 244 had graduated B. Psy and 241 B. Psy (Hons). Most of this resource was not being used even though every organisation and every parish had so-called counsellors. In spite of all the good intentions many of these "counsellors" had not received any training at all and this was worrying.

One of the few places where B. Psy Hons graduates were used was in separation cases. Was this the only thing they were good for? These people could work as assistant psychologists under the supervision of psychologists in jobs scheduled by the law, such as governmental and non-governmental agencies.

Did it make sense to invest in so many people for so many years and then not even recognise them in the law?

One of the reasons for a waiting list at the Child Development Advisory Unit (CDAU) of St Luke's Hospital was a lack of psychologists. Surely a number of assistant psychologists could work there under supervision of psychologists.

There also seemed to be consensus towards the introduction of a grade for assistant psychologists. At Appogg, Sedqa and the Richmond Foundation there were people who were doing the work of assistant psychologists.

At the same time, the masters course in psychology at the university should be reopened. Not holding this course after the enactment of this law would not make sense, Mr Galea said.

Labour MP Joe Abela said the opposition believed it was positive for the country to have a legal framework establishing a particular profession, as happened in Europe and the US.

This increased responsibility on the individual practicing the profession. There were other professions which should function under a similar regulatory framework such physiotherapists, occupational therapists and speech therapists.

Mr Abela also underlined the need to recognise assistant psychologists in terms of the law.

He also agreed on the need for further training, thus the need for the masters.

He pointed out that the services of psychologists was very rarely offered to people who worked in stressful jobs such as nurses, especially those working in the intensive therapy unit and policemen and soldiers working will illegal immigrants. When these people sought help, they very rarely found it.

At the CDAU there was only one psychologist who had to assess all cases. It was difficult to handle one case, let alone a lot of them.

The government should not invest just in the masters course for new psychologists. That investment was required but the government should also ensure that there was the necessary basis for these people to continuously keep themselves up to date.

Labour MP Joe Brincat said that chldren were psychologically different because of the environment they were brought up in. So research had to be carried out on certain aspects of Maltese psychology. People were different even in the same family so one could not take the British or US model and assume that the Maltese would react in the same way.

Labour MP Carmelo Abela also called for recognition of assistant psychologists. He also stressed that one should give specialisation the necessary attention. When a psychologist was given a warrant, the sector he specialised in should be clear.

He also insisted that the government should provide the funding which the university needed for the masters course in psychology.

Mr Abela said a priority should be to ensure there were more psychologists in the education sector, were there were far too few psychologists to the number of students.

There were only six educational psychologists and their number needed to double.

The debate continues today.