AS ASIAN countries become more developed, more health psychologists will be needed.

That is because health and social problems like obesity, smoking, alcohol abuse and stress will become more common.

Professionals from Oklahoma City University (OCU) in the United States and lifelong-learning institute MDIS are already seeing the need for it.

OCU?s psychology department chair Dennis Jowaisas, who was in Singapore last week, said: ?Every time I come to Singapore and I ask people how they are, they tell me they are ?stressed out?.?

It is a problem that is becoming increasingly common, he told my paper, adding that it can affect the immune system.

?The negative impact on an individual will eventually translate into a bigger negative impact on the population,? Professor Jowaisas said.

Come March next year, MDIS will start its first degree programme in psychology, with an emphasis on health psychology. MDIS was founded in 1956, and is Singapore?s oldest not-for-profit professional institute for lifelong learning.

But first, MDIS will be conducting foundation programmes ? starting this month ? to gear students up for the rigorous degree course.

A diploma course is also being offered, and that will begin later this month as well.

Full-time and part-time programmes are available, and enrolment is ongoing for these courses.

Prof Jowaisas, who is in his 60s, is a frequent visitor to Singapore ? he has been visiting almost every year since the early 1990s to teach a research-methods module for the mass-communications programme at MDIS.

?The degree course eventually aims to prepare students for employment in hospitals, health ministries, and even big, multinational companies,? said Prof Jowaisas.

?Around the world, there are not enough health psychologists. In the next 10 to 15 years, health-related areas will have tremendous growth.?

The MDIS programmes also prepare students very well for further studies at the post-graduate level.

Furthermore, Prof Jowaisas added, the programme at MDIS was decided upon after consultation with ministry officials here.

The psychology department?s previous dean, Dr Roberta Olson, had done some research here when the idea for the course was first mooted.

?She had spoken with ministry officials and people working in the hospitals.

?She found that the cutting edge of applied psychology was probably in this area of health psychology,? Prof Jowaisas said. One student who is convinced that skills and knowledge gained from the psychology programme will help her in the future is Ms Nuraslinda Mohamad Masroni.

The 24-year-old nurse, who is working in Mount Elizabeth Hospital, told my paper: ?Learning psychology will help me access a vast store of information about issues that concern everyone. ?It will definitely help a lot in my job.?

Ms Nuraslinda has registered for the Diploma in Health Psychology course, which will start this month.

Prof Jowaisas agreed: ?In the future, health psychologists will be needed to actively intervene and design programmes to help fix social problems. Psychology does not merely encompass passive counselling.

?It?s because health psychologists are equipped with the knowledge of how humans behave and how to modulate this behaviour.?

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