Vietnam is a nation in Southeast Asia that is nearly the size of Germany at 362,000 square kilometers. It is home to around 80 million people from 54 different ethnic groups. Vietnam has fought numerous wars for national liberation throughout its lengthy history; this cause was finally achieved in 1975. Ho Chi Minh proclaimed Vietnam independent in 1945, but the country’s northern region wouldn’t be freed until 1954. National reunification was achieved and the southern section of the country was freed in 1975. In order to advance our economy, culture, and educational system, we have started a renewal process in 1986 that has seen the nation move from a bureaucratic and subsidized economy to a market economy with a socialist orientation.
We have achieved important successes, opening new prospects for national reconstruction. Education is an important part of the country’s renewal, and educational psychology has become central to the practice of psychology in Vietnam.
THE STORY OF ONE VIETNAMESE MAN:
I used to have a very unusual illness that caused me to always perspire, have elevated blood pressure, and fast heartbeats. I believed that I was going to die.
Many times a month, I was taken to the hospital by ambulance. Three big hospitals extensively examined me in an effort to determine the reason for my hypertension. The most likely explanations were that I either had a pheochromocytoma, a rare tumor of the adrenal gland tissue, or that there was a problem with my heart. CT scans, ultrasounds, and other diagnostic procedures produced no results. Doctors performed the same tests without success everywhere I went.
For months, I was confined to this prison. I was unable to get to work or do my regular tasks. I was so afraid to leave the house alone. I had no way of getting out of this sad situation.
That dawned on me one day. What if my mind is acting strangely instead of my body? I ultimately chose to see a neurologist after reading some material on the subject.
After examining me, a young physician at Bach Mai Hospital concluded that I had panic and anxiety condition. There was no second opinion; I just got better a few months later when he gave me a prescription.
ANXIETY DISORDER:
In the world, and particularly in Vietnam, anxiety disorders are exceedingly prevalent. At some point in their lives, 1.7% of Americans between the ages of 18 and 54 come into contact with them. The condition itself is not that unusual, but what is unusual is that three major Hanoi hospitals were unable to diagnose me. To get a diagnosis for my disease, I had to do my own research.
After I posted my story online, a lot of people contacted me, asking for advice and claiming to have similar mental illnesses. I unintentionally turned into an armchair psychologist.
To be honest, I just listened to what they had to say and gave them the names of competent medical professionals. My role was to calm them down and direct them to the appropriate resources for assistance.
How there are so many people with mental health problems and so few medical professionals to support them is a mystery to me. 30 percent of Vietnamese people had experienced at least one mental illness in their lifetime, and half of those cases required treatment, according to data from the mental health department of Bach Mai Hospital. An estimated 40,000 people commit suicide each year as a result of depression, which is approximately half the annual death toll from cancer.
Most of the people I assisted, particularly those who resided in rural areas, had no idea what was going on with them. They endured silent suffering on their own, believing that everyone would experience it at some point in their lives.
The better off people, many of whom reside in cities, sought help when they realized anything was wrong with their mental health. I went with a few of them to every facility we could locate in an attempt to find out more about the mental health care system in Vietnam. Many ended up like me, in the neurological sections of large hospitals, where doctors listened to their issues for a few minutes and then immediately wrote prescriptions.
LISTENING PATIENTLY
Listening to people’ tales is a crucial part of treating mental health disorders. However, a lack of staff and resources frequently forces doctors to hurry, missing crucial cues. Numerous patients have received incorrect diagnoses. For example, bipolar disorder is mistakenly diagnosed as depression.
Physicians are too busy to provide mentally disturbed individuals a patient hearing in both the public and private healthcare systems. I’ve visited a lot of clinics where the waiting rooms were usually packed and the doctors were too busy to spend the necessary time with their patients, particularly those suffering from mental health issues.
There are just not enough mental health specialists in Vietnam. According to WHO data from 2014, there were only about 0.91 psychiatrists or psychologists for every 100,000 Vietnamese inhabitants, which is among the lowest ratios worldwide. In contrast, Singapore’s equivalent number is 3.48, while the United States’ is 12.4.
My diagnosing physician once told me that students who specialize in psychiatry and psychology are somehow “lesser” than their counterparts who concentrate on medical conditions. Another reason for Vietnam’s dearth of practitioners in these professions is this “stigma”..
There were just 36 mental health hospitals in Vietnam in 2014, and they only had about 6,000 beds available for really sick patients. Merely 600 healthcare establishments, primarily public hospitals or clinics, provide diagnostic services for outpatients suffering from mental health issues.
Although things might have changed since then, things don’t seem to have changed all that much from 2014. The epidemic has intensified the fire during the past two years, greatly aggravating mental health problems. Even though this is a difficult task, there is a chance for both the public and private health sectors to step up to the plate.
Vietnam should take greater steps to encourage aspiring physicians to specialize in psychiatry or neurology, and mental health organizations should work with the commercial sector and invest in it to obtain additional funding. Professional jobs in neurology, psychiatry, and psychology are very fulfilling in industrialized nations.
Additionally, investors should be aware that social priorities are shifting to include mental wellness. Patients would look for the best facilities to entrust their care to, yet most of our mental health institutions have disappointingly poor infrastructure and service quality, in my experience.
SUMMARY
VIETNAM SHOULD PRIORITIZE DEVELOPING A NATIONAL STRATEGY TO BOOST THE NUMBER OF MENTAL HEALTH SPECIALISTS. SO MANY LIVES WOULD BE SPARED FROM DESPAIR BY IT. YES, I AM AWARE. I HAVE VISITED THAT PLACE.
