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For: Karina Monsalve
Intrusion, “act of exercising professional activities without legal title to do so” (Larousse Dictionary). Intrusion, technically, has been defined as the action of entering without right in a dignity, jurisdiction, trade or property. In the daily environment, intrusiveness is the exercise of a profession without a title for it.
It seems that in these times the act of usurping functions or self-awarding professions is something easy and common in our country.. Every week this year we have seen statements by the authorities denouncing people who have engaged in the illegal exercise of professional activities, mostly in the health area, such as dentists, doctors, psychologists, nutritionists, among others. What has generated an alarm and concern among Venezuelan citizens who come for medical attention.
Currently, unscrupulous people use social networks and web pages to offer offers on health services in general. It is a medium that allows you to freely create a “product” and offer it to the community without any prior requirement. In this way we can find very prestigious sites and professionals in their area, but at the same time, find charlatans and freeloaders who seek the opportunity to obtain profits thanks to the ignorance of “consumers”.
It has become common to see doctors dancing, psychologists showing themselves in bathing suits, nutritionists posing as magazine models, all in order to sell or simply collect the highly valued “likes”. Given this scenario, when one dares to look at the networks and reflects on the professional world that surrounds us, it generates a certain unease. This new practice, or new way of communicating with the Other, lends itself to crossing the fine line of what is ethical and what is not. Therefore, it is worth questioning whether this type of behavior by health professionals, instead of “humanizing” them, disfigures the profession and allows, in some way, the participation of people who dare to practice as professionals.
This situation is extremely serious, since these practices threaten people’s health. Promoting magical or miraculous diets, without knowing the individual requirements of each person, is detrimental to their health. Offering psychological evaluations or psychotherapy as a coach is a crime, it can trigger complex psychological processes that can damage the mental and emotional health of the consultant without having the tools to correct it.
In the field of psychology, the offer of treatments with pseudotherapies is a wide and dangerous range made available to everyone; a scam, offering the false promise of a quick and immediate solution to a problem.
The intrusion today is a multidimensional problem, since it intervenes the social environment, the economic factor, the lack of education and ethics, the gap in our laws that accurately penalize this type of person, among others.
It is necessary to raise awareness of the community in this regard. The population must be informed and alert against this type of deception. It is important that patients ask the specialist for the number of their union or association that identifies them as such.
The invitation is also for all health professionals to maintain an ethical attitude both outside and inside social networks, since this represents a moral and ethical obligation that helps prevent the proliferation of this problem.
KARINA MONSALVE , TW @karinakarinammq IG @psic.ka.monsalve
Clinical psychologist at the La Trinidad Teaching Medical Center.
El Pitazo is not responsible for and does not endorse the opinions expressed in this article.
Karina MonsalveOpinion
Karina MonsalveOpinion