Child psychologist guilty of unprofessional conduct

The Health Professionals Council has fined a prominent Johannesburg child psychologist R40 000 after finding him guilty of unprofessional conduct, says a Times Select report. The finding against Dr Brendan Belsham, author of the book What's the Fuss About ADHD, follows a complaint by Johannesburg father David Nefdt-Epstein on the accuracy of tools Belsham was using to assist in diagnosing children, including his son, with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Belsham diagnosed his son with ADHD in 2017. Belsham used an outdated version of a rating scale to make the diagnosis, according to the complaint. Nefdt-Epstein said it had been an enormously tough journey ‘not only for us but especially for my son’. He said Belsham had used the outdated diagnostic scale in assisting with the diagnosis of ADHD with his son, and then prescribed a treatment plan using Ritalin. But Nefdt-Epstein said he believed his son did not require such an extreme intervention, especially with a diagnostic tool that had no merit in determining the severity of the diagnosis.