CINTESIS Researcher Chairs the Specialty Council of Clinical and Health Psychology

Miguel Ricou, a researcher at CINTESIS – Center for Health Technology and Services Research and professor at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Porto (FMUP), has been elected president of Specialty Council of Clinical and Health Psychology of the Portuguese Psychologists Order.

The professor and researcher reacts to his election “with great satisfaction and a twinge of pride. I have been a clinical psychologist for over 20 years. I have always been an enthusiast for the organization of the profession and it is with great joy that I witness Psychology being valued as a profession.

“Having the opportunity to chair this council has a special meaning for me because it recognizes the importance of ethics as a fundamental contribution to excellence in professional practice,” adds the researcher, who chaired the OPP’s Ethics Commission before.

The objectives for this four-year term are the promotion of good Psychology practice and interdisciplinary and interprofessional collaboration, in an integrated healthcare perspective. “Increasingly, the fields of research that I develop at FMUP associated with professional ethics are central to guiding the education, training, and practice of clinical and health psychologists. I have always maintained that ethics is the promotion of excellence of practice”, he asserts.

With a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology, Miguel Ricou is currently an Assistant Professor at FMUP and a researcher at CINTESIS, where he has developed studies in Bioethics and Professional Ethics. In recent years, his research focus has been, in particular, on the issues of early death (euthanasia and assisted suicide). He is a founding member of the European Platform Wish to Die, which is dedicated to the study of the decision-making process, decision consistency, the role of palliative care, and the impact on the family.

As a psychologist, he is also the president of Interpsic – Portuguese Association for Psychological Intervention and the Portuguese representative at the European Federation of Psychologists Associations – EFPA Board of Ethics.