Dr Ruziati (left) presents an accreditation certificate to an MoE Akrab counsellor.
SIBU: The Public Service Counselling Associates (Akrab) counsellors have been told to respect the confidentiality of their clients.
Ministry of Education (MoE) Psychology and Counselling Division secretary Dr Ruziati Mior Ahamad Ariffin said they should adhere to guidelines and ethics as peer counsellors with agencies and departments.
“There are Akrab members who have been stripped of their counsellor title for failure to follow Akrab ethics.
“Your role is to counsel and guide your colleagues in need of emotional support, and not share their secrets with others.
“They confide in you as they trust you,” she said when officiating at the MoE Akrab accreditation held at Lakis Hall in the compound of An-Nur Mosque here yesterday.
About 240 Akrab counsellors from Sarawak and 35 from Sabah received their accreditations at the function.
Earlier, Dr Ruziati said Akrab counsellors should approach problematic colleagues and listen to their problems since they can affect their productivity, and help motivate them.
MoE Akrab counsellors, she said, should also listen to problems of students in schools.
Akrab was introduced in 2006 to improve the performance of civil servants for a first-class work culture in public service.
A total of 1,849 MoE Akrab counsellors nationwide have received their accreditations so far.