A Collaborative Needs Assessment and Work Plan in Behavioral Medicine Curriculum Development in Vietnam.

Abstract

An important aspect of family medicine education in the United States and abroad is behavioral medicine. Interpersonal and communication skills, mental health assessment, and sensitivity to diverse patient populations are areas of curricular importance. This article describes the behavioral medicine portion of a family medicine consultation with Vietnam, in progress since 1999. The needs assessment for behavioral medicine reveals few monetary or personnel resources available for training family physicians or caring for patients with mental health problems. Challenges of conducting cross-cultural consultations are many and include confronting language barriers.

Results of a psychosomatic training program in China, Vietnam and Laos: successful cross-cultural transfer of a postgraduate training program for medical doctors

“…Primary care is part of community hospital health center-based services [14]. In outpatient clinics, there is little room for individual, personal doctor-patient relationships, which frequently form the basis of successful treatment.…”

“…Basic care is lacking for common mental and psychosomatic disorders and problems, and this care is not adequately addressed by traditional medicine. In the current medical education systems in China and Vietnam, psychosomatic or psychological content is only marginally taught [10-14]. More psychiatric education is available; however, it is taught mostly, if not always, in a biological manner, and there is a strong emphasis on psychotropic drugs and custodial care.…”

“…Only half of the eight medical schools have first-degree specialty training programs in psychiatry. Psychologists administer psychological tests and sometimes perform consultations, primarily in schools and industry [11,12,14]. Furthermore, education about consultation-liaison psychiatry and psychosomatics in daily clinical practice is nonexistent [9,15].…”

Development of Clinical Psychology and Mental Health Resources in Vietnam

“…Consequently, resources for treatment of mental health problems have been limited (Gabriele 2006; Schirmer et al 2004), especially among children (e.g., there currently are only about 20 child psychiatrists in Vietnam). According to a World Health Organization report on the mental health system in Vietnam (World Health Organization 2006), the total number of personnel working in the field of mental health in Vietnam is quite limited, with a total of 286 psychiatrists, the equivalent of each psychiatrist being responsible for approximately 300,000 people.…”

“…Most recently, there has been increasing recognition of the need for social policy change, and that attention and resources need to be shifted to social domains such as mental health (Schirmer et al 2004; Gabriele 2006). However, not only are there few mental health service resources, there are few resources for training child mental health researchers or practitioners.…”