On the 29th of June, the 1st alteration to the statute of the Ordem dos Psicólogos Portugueses (OPP) was made. This change only applies to Article 84 which sets the transitional access regime to permanent OPP members, or in other words, the article which establishes the exemption from the execution of the OPP professional internship:
 
“Therefore, Article 84 now has the following wording:
 
“The following graduates are considered exempt from the professional internship: those who did a four or five year degree with a curricular internship included, those who show proof of professional psychological experience, during a minimum period of 12 months up to the date of the first elections for the national bodies of the Order.”
 
The change in Article 84 of Law 57/2008 arises from a long process which was initiated by the OPP, less than 1 month after the first managing bodies were elected. On the 12th of May 2012, the OPP presented, to the 11th Committee of the Parliament, a proposal quite similar to the version which it had just approved, more that 2 years after our proposal.
 
Due to the long legal process, the Ordem dos Psicólogos Portugueses (OPP) decided to introduce, through the professional internship regulation, a system of equivalence to the professional internship for those who begin their professional experience before this regulation enters into force. This recognition of professional experience has allowed 2117 members to become permanent members.
 
The change in the Law approved last week has allowed approximately 190 internship members with the recognition of professional experience to become permanent members. For this purpose, the OPP is carrying out an automatic revision of the situation of the members who are in this situation and who have the conditions needed to become permanent members.