Opposition MP calls for further investment in school counsellors

The government should invest more heavily in school counsellors, shadow social policy minister Paula Mifsud Bonnici said.

“Unfortunately, there are children who perform poorly in school because their family and emotional problems are holding them back,” Mifsud Bonnici said during the second reading of a draft counselling professions law in Parliament. “I won’t be specific but there are certain schools that do require more immediate attention and the government should address those schools first.”

She also said that the law should provide a clear explanation as to what constitutes professional counselling ethics.

“Such ethics should provide utmost importance to the confidentiality of counsellors,” Mifsud Bonnici said. “Such confidentiality is crucial if patients are to speak freely with their counsellors and build a therapeutic relationship with them.

“The Malta Association for the Counselling Profession has already developed its own code of professional ethics, and the Council for the Counselling Profession should take a good look at it.”  

According to this bill, future counsellors will have to work for two years or 1000 hours under a professional counsellor before they can apply to the council for a professional warrant. While she agreed with that clause, Mifsud Bonnici said that those 1000 hours must all involve face-to-face patient sessions.

She also called on the Council for the Counselling Profession to review the system through which counsellors are handed temporary warrants, to ensure that such warrants truly have a time bar.   

“The absolute majority of counsellors are up to scratch, but it’s good to have a law that counsellors will be tied down to,” Mifsud Bonnici said. “I’m proud that Malta will be at the forefront with regards the regularization of counselling.”