Written Answer

Plans for Mental Health and Allied Professionals in Social and Health Manpower Development Programme and Community Mental Health Masterplan

6 January 2020 · Ministry of Health

Speakers

Walter Theseira Gan Kim Yong (Minister for Health)

Summary

This question concerns Assoc Prof Walter Theseira’s inquiry regarding manpower development plans for mental health professionals and target ratios for psychiatrists, psychologists, and counsellors. Minister for Health Gan Kim Yong highlighted training initiatives, including overseas expert visits and sponsorships for local professionals under the Health Manpower Development Plan. He noted that the Ministry of Social and Family Development administers a Skills Framework for psychologists and has established a Social Service SkillsFuture Tripartite Taskforce. Current figures show 4.4 psychiatrists and 8.33 psychologists per 100,000 population, with public sector psychiatrist and psychologist numbers increasing by 8% and 7% respectively. Minister for Health Gan Kim Yong stated that while no international consensus exists for specific target ratios, the Ministry continues to monitor manpower to ensure care access.

Transcript

14 Assoc Prof Walter Theseira asked the Minister for Health (a) whether there are any manpower development plans for mental health and allied professionals in the Social and Health Manpower Development Programme and Community Mental Health Masterplan and, if so, what is the progress of these plans; (b) what are the targets the Ministry has for (i) psychiatrist to population ratio (ii) clinical psychologist to population ratio and (iii) counsellor to population ratio; and (c) when does the Ministry expect to achieve these target ratios.

Mr Gan Kim Yong: Local training programmes are available for psychiatrists, psychologists and counsellors. Under MOH's Health Manpower Development Plan (HMDP), over the past three years, an average of three overseas experts from a variety of professions visited local healthcare institutions to advise and teach aspects of mental healthcare each year. In addition, under the HMDP, an average of 13 local mental health professionals were sent to overseas centres to study and learn different models of care delivery each year. A Skills Framework (SF) was established in January 2019 to guide the developmental pathways of psychologists, including clinical psychologists. This framework for psychologists is administered by the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF). MSF had also set up a Social Service SkillsFuture Tripartite Taskforce (STT) to drive, coordinate and implement tripartite collaborations for manpower development initiatives, including that for psychologists.

Currently, there are about 248¹ psychiatrists and 473² psychologists in Singapore. This translates to 4.4 psychiatrists and 8.3³ psychologists per 100,000 population. Within the public health sector, the number of psychiatrists and psychologist increased by 8% to 182⁴ and 7% to 171 respectively in the last three years. MOH does not have specific numbers of counsellors practising in Singapore as many healthcare professionals and social workers provide counselling as part of their work. Whilst there is no international consensus on the number or ratio of mental health professionals to population, the MOH will continue to monitor the numbers to ensure appropriate access and quality.