Mental collapse: there are not enough qualified psychologists in Russia
At a meeting of the Human Rights Council, it was reported that there are only 12 professional psychologists per 100,000 Russians. There is a particularly acute shortage of specialists in a narrow field — children's and adolescent, family, oncopsychologists, as well as experts in working with combat veterans. At the same time, the market is overflowing with consultants without the necessary education: there are three times as many of them as certified psychologists. Why this situation has developed and how the problem can be solved is in the Izvestia article.
Which psychologists are missing
The Russian system of psychological assistance is facing an acute shortage of personnel. As of June 2026, there are only 12 qualified psychologists per 100,000 people: such statistics were provided by the Commissioner for Human Rights, Yana Lantratova. She attributed the shortage of specialists, among other things, to the fact that about 40% of graduates of psychology faculties of universities do not work by profession.
"There are professional psychologists in the regions, but they are not enough," Lantratova said at a meeting of the Presidential Human Rights Council's specialized working group. — Besides, not all psychologists who have education are able to work with pain and trauma. Not everyone knows how to work with children.
The Ombudsman recalled a case when a girl was informed about the death of her father during a solemn assembly at which the whole school gathered. That's what the psychologist advised, not realizing the deep trauma it could cause the child.
— No one wished the girl harm, but the specialist simply did not know how to work with grief. And this is a huge problem today," she stressed.
There is a particular shortage of specialized psychologists, Victoria Shimanskaya, a lecturer at the Moscow Institute of Psychoanalysis, told Izvestia. In particular, we are talking about the fields of education, medicine and crisis care.
— The biggest deficit is in narrow areas. These are, for example, child and adolescent psychologists, psychiatrists and psychotherapists. Nowadays, children are increasingly faced with bullying, eating disorders, and socialization problems," the expert noted.
In addition, according to her, there are few specialists in the country dealing with PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder is a severe mental condition that occurs after experiencing a traumatic event).
— PTSD, according to research, is diagnosed in about 20% of those who return from the war zone. And in a number of regions, the proportion of requests for psychological help among the participants of the SVO and their families exceeds 60%," the psychologist said.
According to Victoria Shimanskaya, the demand for family counselors, oncopsychologists and psychosomatologists who work in conjunction with doctors, as well as for specialists in burnout and corporate well-being, who are engaged in the implementation of programs in companies aimed at improving the psychological state of employees and the climate in the team, has increased significantly.
How to improve the quality of training
The psychological services market is actively growing, but the shortage of staff who have received professional training and are able to work with complex cases is still high, Anastasia Chertkova, clinical director of the Alter platform, noted in an interview with Izvestia.
"There is a great demand for specialists working at the intersection of psychology and medicine, for example, in oncology, the reproductive sphere and in the care of patients with chronic diseases," she noted.
Previously, people sought help only in situations of acute crisis, but now more and more people have begun to pay attention to mental health and perceive going to a psychologist as taking care of themselves, the expert believes. Many sign up for counseling because of stress, burnout, and relationship difficulties - psychological help has become much more accessible with the development of online counseling.
According to Victoria Shimanskaya, over the past three years, the volume of the psychological services market in Russia has more than doubled. However, the problem of the quality of training has been and remains, the expert believes.
— The psychological services market has been filled by people who have completed short-term courses. But they are unsuitable for working with children, psychosomatics, depression, and PTSD — they need a serious foundation, knowledge of ethics, and interdisciplinary training," she stressed.
Earlier, Izvestia wrote that in Russia there are about 100 thousand privately practicing professional psychologists in the non-governmental sector. However, there are three times as many unqualified consultants, who often work with patients without specialized education — about 300 thousand.
If a person in an acute borderline or psychotic state gets to such a "specialist", the consequences can be unpredictable and very sad, said Ekaterina Artemenko, community director of the Yasno service, gestalt therapist.
An unqualified psychologist is capable of giving incorrect recommendations and harming a client, the experts interviewed agreed.
"Many of the difficulties people face may look at first glance like ordinary stress, anxiety, or relationship problems, but they often hide depression, PTSD, personality disorders, suicide risk, or other complex conditions that require special knowledge and skills," Anastasia Chertkova explained. — It is difficult for an inexperienced psychologist to recognize a serious problem, and as a result, the client loses time instead of the necessary help, and his condition worsens.
Before starting to work with children, specialists need to complete an additional educational cycle, said Svetlana Shport, Director General of the V.P. Serbsky National Medical Research Center for Psychiatry and Narcology, chief freelance psychiatrist at the Russian Ministry of Health.
— A school psychologist is required to study additional educational modules, at least 18 hours, in order to understand how to work with a state of grief, how to communicate with parents whose child is not doing well in school or is experiencing stress, — she noted during the meeting of the HRC, — Experienced psychologists also turn to us [for advice] in order to to learn how to provide assistance to veterans of their military who return to peaceful life and work.
Svetlana Shport recalled that starting in 2023, medical and psychological counseling offices will be opened throughout Russia. So, from January to April 2026, more than a million Russians turned to medical psychologists, said Rafael Shavaliev, director of the Department of Medical Care for Children, the Maternity and Public Health Service of the Ministry of Health.
At the same time, the number of professionals with higher psychological education is steadily growing. In 2023, 17.2 thousand graduates graduated from the faculties of Psychology, Clinical Psychology, Performance Psychology and Conflictology, in 2024 - 18.3 thousand, in 2025 — 22.2 thousand, the Ministry of Education and Science told Izvestia.
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