Today, I will share with you a statement made by the Turkish Psychiatric Association about a frequently discussed issue. When psychology is mentioned, almost everyone in the country thinks of psychiatrists, psychologists and psychological counselors. From time to time, these definitions get confused or are not correctly understood by the public, which made me want to share this information with you. Here, let's take a look at the article.
In this text, it is mentioned that many people who do not have the authority to practice medicine in our country and therefore do not have the competence and competence to work with pathological cases attempt diagnosis and treatment practices that will lead to undesirable results and that this situation seriously threatens public health. . Although there are legal regulations on the subject, some media organizations introduce these people and institutions to the public through programs, exacerbating the problem. The Turkish Psychiatric Association has felt the responsibility of informing the press and the public on this issue.
In our country, the definitions of professional groups dealing with mental problems are not sufficiently known in many segments of society. For example, the terms psychologist or psychiatrist are often used interchangeably. With this usage, two groups, which are actually very different in terms of the education they receive, are confused.
People working in the field of mental health can be listed as follows:
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Psychiatric Physician
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General Practitioner/Family Physician
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Psychologist/Clinical Psychologist
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Psychological Counselor
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Social Worker
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Psychiatric Nurse
Professional groups listed above Those who work in fields other than "life coach, NLP, etc." are not included in the mental health team.
Psychiatryis a branch of medicine. He is a physician who graduated from medical school and completed his psychiatry specialty training and works in the recognition, prevention, treatment and rehabilitation of mental disorders. With his medical education, he is a person who has knowledge about general diseases of a person and has the authority, knowledge and equipment to define his psychological structure and treat it when necessary.
Psychologists, university They are people who graduated from the psychology department in the science and literature faculties of the sites and received the title of psychologist. At the end of their undergraduate education, they are divided into branches and specialize in the fields of clinical, developmental, industrial and social psychology.
Psychological Counselors graduate from the Guidance and Psychological Counseling department of universities and have the title of psychological counselor. they get it. While psychology department students are directed to a more general theoretical education, psychological counseling students go through a practical training and supervision process. After undergraduate education, they can focus on specialization in a branch; If their specialty is psychotherapy, they can do therapy in the field they specialize in.
Finally, the most obvious difference between psychologists, psychological counselors and psychiatrists is that psychiatrists who have medical training have the authority to prescribe medication for psychological disorders, whereas psychologists and psychological counselors do not have such authority.
If you do not know who to contact first for your mental health, you should determine your needs well and get help from an expert working in this field.
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