Vietnam iMHLP Group
The content of the course is very interesting and useful for the development of mental health systems. It is especially helpful for developing countries with limited resources where mental health seems not to be a leading priority for policy makers. The four components of the course – mental health policy, legislation and financing; human resources for mental health; advocacy and human rights; and mental health service design – are all relevant the mental health system development.
In addition, the course created the chance for people from different countries to meet and share experiences. We had opportunities to know and understand more about what other countries are doing in mental health and consider what we can apply in Vietnam.
What we most appreciate?
- We highly appreciated the course design of the first and the second week of training course – mental health policy, legislation and financing, and human resources for mental health. As participants, we got the theories and we had opportunities to apply them to develop ideas for mental health in Vietnam. There were many discussions during the training sessions to clarify theories and to raise many practical questions.
- Facilitators have a lot of varying experiences in theories and practical development work. They come from both developed countries and developing countries. Facilitators leading the training sessions are very experienced.
- Many good examples from the textbook for the training course were provided to participants. Each week, we received separate reading materials. There were a lot relevant books to explore them and after training course.
- This course helped to confirm a lot of technical details of our project design in particular, as well as helping us feel confident that we have been leading our program on the right track, following recommendations from leading international experts for the development of community based mental health care services in general. The course also offered a lot of suggestions to think beyond the model that our project has been working on as well as the chance of network development at several levels. We became more aware of the responsibilities for publication, possibilities and feasibility to make change happen in mental health service development.
- Accommodation for participants was very good. The apartments had almost everything for us to live in a short period of time.
What we think can be done differently…
- More opportunities for participants to discuss in small groups. There are many good case studies in the course documentation (textbook). Maybe facilitators could use them more as materials for small group discussion.
- It would be useful to do a pre-evaluation before the course. It would help for facilitators to have general ideas of the participants and select the most relevant content and teaching methods.
- Too many presentations from participants. The course organizers should review them in advance to make sure they are relevant and that they fit with time limits.
- We also wish that the course would spend more time to present and analyse some successful and unsuccessful models for community based mental health services in developed countries as well as in developing countries so we will be able to learn from those successes and failures and at least avoid making the same mistakes.
- Before visiting to Geelong or Ballarat, an outline of community based mental health models in these areas should be provided.
How we will apply what we have learned from the course?
The Vietnam group discussed and committed to meet monthly for understanding more what we can do individually and what we can do together. Further collaboration will be developed and we will create opportunities for working together. We can discuss with other members of the Taskforce group to find opportunities for collaboration and discuss with other leaders in our organisations to convince them to design a strategic plan for mental health.
It takes time to change the national mental health system. However, we can do activities to support the existing system and to generate scientific evidence to support the changes. The following are activities that we can be done:
- Review existing training in human resources for mental health
- Review existing policies on mental health
- Analyse the existing mental health system
- Develop advocacy on human resources and policy for mental health
- Develop curricula that are focused on mental health for nursing and clinical psychologists
- Development of community based mental health services