How to check if someone is registered with the Health Professions Council of South Africa.
To use a psychological test, you must be registered with the HPCSA on one of the following registers:
- Psychologists
- Psychometrists
- Registered Counsellors
If you have been assessed using psychological tests, you may want to check if the person who assessed you is registered.
It is a criminal offence for an unregistered person to use a psychological test.
Information you need
You can check a person’s registration status using any of the following:
- Their surname
- Their given names (full names)
- Their registration number
- The register on which they are registered
Where to check it
- Go to the Health Professions Council of South Africa’s website: www.hpcsa.co.za
- Click on the area marked “access to the i-register”
- This will take you to a query dialog that interfaces directly with the database of registered professionals
What to enter
- Tick the fields you want to enter, and a text entry box appears for you to type in the information.
- If you are not sure how to spell the surname, select the “Wildcard” option next to the entry box. If you are sure you have the spelling correct, leave it on “exact”.
- For the full name, you should probably use “wildcard” because people often use different forms of their names in daily life.
- The register is a drop-down list, and you can only check one register at a time.
- If you don’t find the person on the psychologists register, check the psychometrists register and then the registered counsellors register.
- If you have the registration number, that is the quickest way to check the person.
As you enter the fields, the search narrows down and the list of people who meet those criteria appear in the window at the bottom.
When you see a person in the bottom window who might be the person who assessed you, click on “view” in the last column.
Checking the details
- Sometimes a person appears on the register, but their registration is not active.
- On the details page, you can see where the person obtained their degree and when, but what you particularly need to look for, is whether the registration is active or not.
If, instead of “active”, the person’s entry on the register says “erased” or “suspended” they are not currently registered and are not allowed to use psychological tests.
If you have checked all three registers and the person’s name does not come up
The next step would be to query it directly with the person who tested you.
You could also phone the HPCSA, or email them.
Without the person’s full names, it is very difficult to verify registration.