Parliamentary QA
The Number of Mental Health Professionals
11 May 2021
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Name and Constituency of Member of Parliament
Mr Seah Kian Peng
MP for Marine Parade GRC
Question No. 1112
To ask the Minister for Health (a) what is the current ratio of mental health professionals to resident population in Singapore; and (b) what is an optimal ratio.
Answer
1 Currently, there are 254[1] psychiatrists registered with the Singapore Medical Council and 504[2] psychologists on the Singapore Psychological Society register. This works out to be 4.5 psychiatrists and 8.9 psychologists per 100k population.
2 There is no international consensus on the optimal ratio of psychiatrists and psychologists to population. MOH will continue to work with stakeholders and agencies such as MOE and MSF to assess the need and monitor the number of mental health professionals to ensure appropriate access to and quality of mental health services.
[1] Source: SMC 2019 Annual Report
[2] Source: Singapore Register of Psychologists, maintained by the Singapore Psychological Society.