PSYCHOLOGY TALKS 2011

BY MS JOLIE TAN AND MS JUNE FONG (MCYS)

26 JAN 2011, WEDNESDAY, LT14

 Working at Clinical and Forensic Psychology Branch (CFPB) of MCYS

→ Clinical psychologists and forensic psychologists
→ Forensic Health Service Unit (FHS) and STAR – do direct work with girls’ and
boys’ home.
→ Good quality of supervision provided
→ FHS: deals more with offenders for rehabilitation (Ms June Fong)
→ STAR: clinical and forensic evaluation of victims of abuse for example (Ms Jolie
Tan)
→ Team of 30 psychologists – tightly knitted family
→ Bulk of clients is from FCPW, PSB, RASB (eg. Singapore Girls’ Home, Singapore
Boys’ Home)
→ Opinions of CFPB are greatly valued by partners, which include other
ministries
→ Work with victims, their families and the perpetuators
→ Offers rare opportunities of working directly with clients, case workers,
supervision staff – ensures that treatment is being followed up

 Challenges of working with such clients

→ Can be very stressful and draining
→ Clients are non-paying, don’t recognize they have problems, may be resistant
and hard to handle
→ Good to enter profession with mindset that you can’t help everyone but you
can do the best that you can
→ Supportive team and understanding bosses at CFPB to help you tide through
hard times

 Advantages of working at CFPB

→ What keeps them going despite the challenges: Meaningful work – seeing
changes, even if small, in clients is heartening. For example, seeing client open up
and face their problem
 → Get a range of experiences besides direct clinical work, such as developing
training and giving talks, assessment, therapy, research, consultation, and crisis
intervention
→ For trauma issues, Masters’ courses don’t go in-depth to discuss about them.
→ CFPB will provide resources and supervision in this area

 Treatment services provided at CFPB

For offenders For victims of sexual abuse

→ Positive Adolescent Sexuality
Treatment
→ Basic Education and Sexuality
Treatment (for youths with special
needs)
→ Sexuality Treatment for Offending
Parents
→ Violence Prevention Programme
(include anger management but
different from anger management
prog)
→ Theft Intervention Programme
→ Individual Therapy ( for mental
health behaviours related to their
offences)
→ Recovery for Kids
→ Recovery & Empowerment for
Survivors of Sexual Abuse
→ Carers’ Recovery & Support
(typically for mothers) – Based on
research, when mothers are caring and
nurturing to victims of sexual abuse,
the victims’ prognosis is better and
mothers who help with abuse are
usually secondary victims too
→ Self-harm Intervention Programme
→ Programme for Optimistics, Well-
equipped and Resilient Kids – holiday
camp for children of mentally ill
parents
→ Attachment therapy – for kids with
attachment disorders (eg. With
neglected or abused kids); individual
sessions with main attachment figure
and child

 CFPB emphasizes on research

→ Evaluating programme effectiveness
→ Topics centred on clinical trauma, effectiveness of treatment, predictors of
youth delinquency, profile of abuse victims, youth gang violence

 CFPB also provides consultation

→ Consultation and psychological inputs to other divisions within MCYS
 → Providing external assessment eg. To police
→ One organization who has access to such a knowledge base on trauma and
abuse

 Talks and trainings provided by CFPB

→ On sexual offenders/ Child-safe environments (eg. Screening out potential sex
offenders)
→ Emergency and disaster response (wider civil service initiative)

 Crisis intervention by CFPB

→ Psychological support for crisis events eg. Suicidal clients, staff of organization
with fellow colleageue who has passed away

 Management Executive Scheme

→ Flexi-work arrangement is very good for such professions which burn out
easily
→ Negotiable for flexi-work arrangement
→ Training and career advancement opportunities – very generous

 Professional Development Opportunities

→ Local and overseas clinical attachment (eg. Scotland) – bring back overseas
programmes for local clients
→ Minimum of 75 training hours/year

 Preferred requirements
→ Post-grad qualification: at least Masters or above qualification in clinical or
forensic psychology
→ Relevant experience in clinical or forensic settings
→ Good report-writing skills – required for writing good legal reports
→ Good interpersonal skills – for working with clients and other professionals

 Post-graduate courses in Clinical Psychology

→ Legal system in Australia relatively similar to Singapore’s – important for
forensic psychologists
→ Psy D. - more opportunities for clinical work, Ph.D - more focused on research
 Question-and-Answer

1. Do you do profiling at MCYS?

→ Don’t do profiling
→ Just a misconception portrayed by the media
→ More focused on risk assessment, detailed report on history, childhood,
intellectual ability testing, risk factors that contributed to their lives and
offending reasons and things that psychologists can target for change and
treatment

2. Any internship opportunities?

→ Yes
→ But limiting intake of interns because seniors psychologists as supervisors are
of shortage

3. Are there internship opportunities for graduating year 4 students?

→ Yes, better to apply for internships in your 3rd or 4th year

4. Experiences being burnt out?

→ Bosses were supportive, detected early, tried to help shift portfolio around
→ Does get tiring and needs to take care of yourself
→ Admitting that you are burnt out is not a sign of failure

5. What do you do as an intern at CFPB?

→ Accept interns on project-basis
→ Assist in data collection and help with key research projects
→ Attached to supervisor(s) and sit in for clinical sessions (attachment to
different supervisors at a time provides more exposure)
→ Monthly meeting at Singapore Boys’ Home and decide on rehab plans –
interns get to sit in and learn more

6. Are post-graduate courses in Singapore recognized?

→ Yes, they are
→ There are psychologists at CFPB who are currently undergoing Masters’
training at local universities with Australian graduate courses.
 7. What’s the difference between Australian and US postgraduate schools?
→ US post-grad programs take a longer time, as they cover less during
undergraduate studies
→ Australian Masters program is considered to be very sufficient and
comprehensive

Disclaimer: The above notes were taken down to the best of our abilities during the
course of the talk. NUSPsyche is providing this for the benefit of students who were
interested in the talk but unable to attend due to various reasons. We shall not be
responsible for any changes in the information or uncovered topics during the talk.