Past Issues
Training and Certifying System of Group Psychotherapist in Taiwan
Ta-Jen Chang
Background：
The 921 Earthquake gave a tremendous shock for Taiwan people and near 2500 people died. It was a disaster for the survival and the bereaved family. Therefore, the need of mental health interventions to help the victims was huge. Among them, group psychotherapy was an importantly professional program. Although many helpers joined the aid-team regardless of their adequate training, the manpower of trained mental-health professionals was defi cient.
National Health Insurance (NHI) has been implemented for more than 14 years in Taiwan, and psychiatric service is reimbursed. Group psychotherapy is surely also one of the signifi cant service items. According to the NHI data, various groups are conducted in every hospital everyday. Meantime, the reimbursement of group psychotherapy is divided into three levels according to the intervening levels. Chien and I reported that the use of group psychotherapy was enhanced 70% from 1997 to 2004 [1]. Regretfully, no qualifying mechanism for group psychotherapist has been set up to defi ne who is competent to lead group psychotherapy until now.
The government has also expected that the psychiatric professionals can involve in the treatment of sexual offenders, domestic violence perpetrators and substance addicts in recent 10 years. Suddenly, the need of professional staff is momentously rising to exceed the quantity in the previous years. Even if having recruited enough professionals, the quality of service is hard to be guaranteed because of the neophyte staff.
Consequently, it is an urgent task to establish the certifi cation system of the group psychotherapist for the psychiatric professionals at present. Soong also recently stressed the need of qualifying mechanism to identify the psychiatrist who will be permitted to do intensive forms of psychotherapy including group psychotherapy and family therapy [2].
National Health Insurance (NHI) has been implemented for more than 14 years in Taiwan, and psychiatric service is reimbursed. Group psychotherapy is surely also one of the signifi cant service items. According to the NHI data, various groups are conducted in every hospital everyday. Meantime, the reimbursement of group psychotherapy is divided into three levels according to the intervening levels. Chien and I reported that the use of group psychotherapy was enhanced 70% from 1997 to 2004 [1]. Regretfully, no qualifying mechanism for group psychotherapist has been set up to defi ne who is competent to lead group psychotherapy until now.
The government has also expected that the psychiatric professionals can involve in the treatment of sexual offenders, domestic violence perpetrators and substance addicts in recent 10 years. Suddenly, the need of professional staff is momentously rising to exceed the quantity in the previous years. Even if having recruited enough professionals, the quality of service is hard to be guaranteed because of the neophyte staff.
Consequently, it is an urgent task to establish the certifi cation system of the group psychotherapist for the psychiatric professionals at present. Soong also recently stressed the need of qualifying mechanism to identify the psychiatrist who will be permitted to do intensive forms of psychotherapy including group psychotherapy and family therapy [2].
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