The Hong Kong Psychological Society has refrained from naming professionals who commit misconduct due to the prospect of legal action, amid a lack of complete consensus on changing its privacy policy, the group has said.
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The situation came to light recently amid concerns over the organisation’s handling of a case in which the subject of a substantiated complaint was successfully rehired after she was forced to leave the group.
The complainant, a resident with mental illness, raised concerns about her then counsellor to the society in September 2023, and was told most of the allegations she had raised were substantiated in December of last year.
“The society was supposed to announce the misconduct counsellor’s name and violations on its website after complaints had been substantiated to alert the public. But since it expelled her from the society in December, this has not been done,” the complainant said.
In response to the Post, the society said it had stopped publicising details of substantiated disciplinary cases in 2023, after facing several legal challenges.
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The society, which requires members to hold recognised psychology degrees, said the publication of disciplinary findings of the relevant case had been postponed until the related legal considerations had been resolved.