Psychological problems with the law – Newspaper Kommersant No. 202 (7403) of 10/31/2022
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The deputies intend to submit to the State Duma a bill on psychological assistance in Russia by the end of the autumn session. As Kommersant found out, now there are as many as five versions of the document, but they all look like 95%, and the remaining 5% fall on the “nuances” that the professional community argues about. One of the main ones is about the requirement for the level of education. The developers of the bill want to allow only those who have graduated from a specialized specialty, bachelor’s or master’s degree to be called psychologists. But experts point out that over the past 30 years, many personnel have been trained who do not have a formal basic psychological education. And if the law does not take this into account, up to 20% of practicing psychologists may find themselves in an illegal field.
The State Duma Committee on Family, Women and Children Affairs intends to submit to the State Duma a bill on psychological assistance in Russia before the end of the autumn session. The vice-speaker of the parliament, Anna Kuznetsova, explained the need for it to Parliamentary Newspaper back in the summer by saying that citizens, wanting to get help, “sometimes meet charlatans who, after taking some incomprehensible courses, pretend to be specialists and destroy not only families, but sometimes life.”
The head of the committee, Nina Ostanina, clarifies that there is no final document yet, but “there is an understanding of what should be in the law.” Yuri Zinchenko, a member of the working group, president of the Russian Psychological Society (RPO), Dean of the Faculty of Psychology at Moscow State University, told Kommersant: the law will establish who is the recipient of psychological assistance and what rights and obligations he has; who is a psychologist and what are the requirements for his education, practice, certification.
According to Mr. Zinchenko, there are five versions of the bill. One of them was published in early October by the Psychological Newspaper. This text indicates the requirements for the level of education: only one who has a higher profile education of at least a specialist or a master’s degree can be called a psychologist. It should be noted that until recently there were no such requirements at all: only on September 14, 2022, the government approved the professional standard “Consultant Psychologist”. It says about a specialist with a higher education or who has undergone retraining. However, what level and what direction education should be, is not indicated in the standard.
The professional community negatively assessed this option. “I have 113 questions on 24 pages of the bill,” comments psychologist Iona Gusachenko, methodologist at the Pure Cognitions online school. “It is extremely important that this bill be done in cooperation with business, practicing psychologists. Considered it for relevance and real problems. And they grew it from below, not from above.”
Alla Shaboltas, Dean of the Faculty of Psychology at St. Petersburg State University, and Svetlana Kostromina, President of the St. Petersburg Psychological Society, members of the expert group for drafting the bill, told Kommersant that this was not the final document. Moreover, experts are now working on a completely different option. According to Ms. Shaboltas, the publication of this project was not accidental: it was done to “frighten, discredit and turn the whole idea of regulation, which in fact should only be for the good.”
However, the head of the Duma working group on the psychological well-being of the population, Alexei Bogachev, assures that all draft laws are 95% similar. The remaining 5%, according to him, are the “nuances” that the professional community is arguing about. Just among them is the requirement for the level of education. Svetlana Kostromina argues that in this matter it is necessary to take into account the “principled position” of the entire professional community that basic psychological education is necessary. According to her, some propose to consider the bachelor’s degree as the “basic” level, others – the specialist’s and master’s programs. However, the difficulty, Ms. Kostromina continues, is that over the past 20–30 years, many psychologists have appeared who do not have such an education at all and only underwent retraining: “We are discussing what to do in this situation. For example, provide for a transitional period. Maybe those people who have been working for a long time will remain in the profession. In the published version of the bill, a year is allotted for the transition period. But in an open letter to the RPO, psychologists in private practice are asking for seven years and for retraining programs to be accredited, not for the specialists themselves.
Maria Danina, co-founder of the online school of psychological professions “Psychodemia”, believes that the bill should provide for procedures to take into account the education of those who received it before the changes came into force, otherwise a large number of colleagues will remain in the gray zone. According to Ms. Danina, up to 20% of practitioners may go into the illegal field if the law does not take into account their situation.
The document published by Psychological Newspaper also refers to the certification procedure for psychologists, as well as the need to provide information about clients at the request of state bodies, including the Federal Penitentiary Service. Alla Shaboltas claims that the law is planned to describe the types of psychological activities, including anonymous assistance, assistance to the incapacitated and minors in critical situations (possibly without parental consent). In addition, it is planned to introduce the concept of “psychological secret”. “Extremely exceptional cases were discussed when, at the request of the court or the bodies of inquiry, the psychologist is obliged to report the fact of the appeal, but personal information remains confidential,” Ms. Shaboltas assures. “The main goal of the bill is to protect and take care of consumers of psychological assistance. To make it accessible, safe, and professional. However, the idea is being peddled that the law will toughen the situation. This is mainly written by people from commercial educational and helping organizations who never provide free services. But if we are talking about widely available psychological assistance, then this is usually a state system.”
Maria Danina claims that the professional community has long been waiting for a law that would help fight the “main enemies”: she includes incompetent specialists and people who combine psychology with spiritual practices and non-scientific approaches. “But the law that the community is waiting for differs from the project developed from above,” says Ms. Danina. “Because the main interest of the developers is people who work as psychologists in state institutions, in schools, in those areas that are just regulated. Private practitioners didn’t have anything to rely on, and still don’t.”
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