Speak Out June 2021

Providing a brighter future for the people of Vietnam

In 2008 Trinh Foundation Australia (TFA) began collaborating with the University of Medicine Pham Ngoc Thach (UPNT) in Ho Chi Minh City to educate Vietnam’s first ever speech therapists, through a two-year training program. By enabling the people of Vietnam to acquire speech therapy capacity themselves, the long-term benefits are now being seen some thirteen years on. With a population of over 97 million, a legacy of defoliants from the Vietnam War, poor maternal and child health and nutrition, and an ageing population, about 7% of Vietnamese people aged 2 years and older, around 6.2 million, have a disability, many including communication and swallowing disorders. An estimated 2.79% of children aged 2 to 17 years have a disability and only 1 in every 8 professional healthcare staff is trained in rehabilitation services. The development of speech therapy as a profession coupled with the ongoing support and education facilitated by TFA, has seen a radical improvement in the quality of life of those in Vietnam living with communication and

swallowing disorders. For the first time ever, those affected have access to the appropriate services and care required. Until 2010, there were no formal training courses or qualified speech language therapists (SLTs) working in Vietnam. Thanks to TFA’s ongoing commitment to capacity building, between 2010-2017 TFA were actively involved in the training of 65 SLTs, 32 of whom were only trained as paediatric SLTs; the others trained to provide service to children and adults, all are now working and teaching throughout the country. UPNT have since gone on to successfully run courses independently. Ms Na and Ms Vân Anh are two graduates from the first cohort of 18 Vietnamese speech therapists in 2012. Both have now become valued Clinical Supervisors, including for the undergraduate course currently underway at Da Nang University of Medical Technology and Pharmacy. TFA consults for the Bachelor program as well as the inaugural two-year master program at UPNT in Ho Chi Minh City. Prior to being introduced to TFA, Ms Na and Ms Vân Anh were working in the accounts department at the Office of

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Speak Out | June 2021