Providing psychological services and counselling in Pacific Rim countries: Where is school psychology in Asia?

Abstract

School psychology services and the functions of school psychologists providing assessment, consultation, and intervention for children and their families are still greatly underdeveloped in the Pacific Rim countries, particularly those with a Chinese heritage culture. For the most part, school psychology services are provided by educational psychologists, school counsellors, and/or teacher-counsellors with varying levels of training and expertise, while the development of school psychology as a profession has been slow in coming. Nonetheless, Asian countries are gradually accepting the notion that children should be in school and there are efforts to provide psychological services within schools to prevent and solve mental health problems unique to these countries. With an obvious need for systematic mental health services, particularly for children and youth and their families, there is also a critical need to develop programmes that would lead to graduate level training in school psychology while simultaneously acknowledging the diversity of these Asian cultures in the Pacific Rim countries. Given the large populations of these countries, it is essential that we work to develop school psychology programmes in the very near future. If the Asian countries were to develop to their fullest potential, school psychologists would be needed as a critical component in all school systems.