1. Full name of PhD student: Le Thi Nhung 2. Gender: Female
3. Date of birth: September 20, 1986 4. Place of birth: Hung Yen
5. Decision on doctoral student recognition No.: 4618/2016/QD-XHNV, dated December 29, 2016of the Rector of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, VNU
6. Changes in the training process:
- Decision No. 388/QD-XHNV dated February 28, 2017 on recognition of doctoral thesis topics and supervisors;
- Decision No. 3265/QD-XHNV dated November 12, 2018 on adding doctoral thesis supervisors;
- Decision No. 1016/QD-XHNV dated April 19, 2019 on adjusting the doctoral thesis topic of graduate students;
7. Thesis topic: Case management with people with disabilities in the community in Ho Chi Minh City
8. Major: Social Work 9. Code: Pilot Training
10. Scientific advisors: Associate Professor, Dr. Bui Thi Xuan Mai, Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Thi Thai Lan
11. Summarynew resultsof the thesis:
The first,In addition to summarizing a relatively complete theoretical basis system with scientific value, the thesis also builds a number of new concepts and tools on case management with people with disabilities in the community from the perspective of social work in the context of Vietnam.
Monday,This is a large-scale practical study, set in the political, cultural and economic conditions of Ho Chi Minh City. Therefore, lThe thesis describes a general picture of the level and frequency of performing the roles of community-based management staff with PWDs in Ho Chi Minh City according to feedback from many perspectives.The results showed thatThe QLTH staff has partly fulfilled the role of mobilizing resources, especially from the informal support network or the network of experts, the role of facilitating the access of PWDs to some support policies. However, some core roles in QLTH such as connector, referral, coordinator, facilitator of participation in social life and community are still unclear. The educational or consulting roles are also common roles of QLTH staff but are rarely performed regularly. The thesis also discovered the limitations in buildingpolicy formulation and implementation as a coordinating role, a unique characteristic of the social work sector.
Tuesday,The research results show that the QTH staff perform some tasks and activities at certain levels in the QTH process with PWDs such as making payment records, collecting some information about disability, health, education, livelihood, employment and supporting PWDs with some social policies. However, the professional tasks and activities of QTHs are rarely performed, such as building occupational therapy relationships with clients, collecting information and assessing needs, especially needs in social aspects, relationships, psychology, emotions and life skills. The planning and implementation stages are also very little focused on, almost non-existent. Monitoring and supervision work is very limited, only stopping at the work of reviewing the list of eligible people and payment regimes. Quantitative results also show that the steps and tasks in the process have close interactions. When tasks are not performed well at a certain stage, it will affect the remaining steps in the QMS process. There are differences between employees at different types of units and support facilities in performing QMS roles and tasks.
Wednesday,The study also found that the implementation of the roles, tasks and processes of the QMS staff still has many weaknesses, the lack of expertise is also related to difficulties, barriers and challenges, such as the lack and weakness of policy mechanisms, lack of understanding and participation of PWDs, families, communities and limitations from the facilities, service providers and support. One of the most prominent difficulties and challenges is that the QMS staff do not have a clear job position, are still part-time or hold many jobs as well as they themselves lack professional capacity in QMS with PWDs in the community.
Thursday,The study discovered a model of 05 groups of factors that have strong and very strong influence on the management of people with disabilities in the community, including: Awareness, participation of family and community; Strengths, capabilities of people with disabilities; Related legal policies; Facility, support (leadership and capacity of facility); Professional capacity of management staff. In which, the professional capacity of management staff is the group of factors that have the clearest influence.
Friday,The results of the experimental impact program have demonstrated that improving the professional capacity of QTH staff through training combining theory, practice and especially personal guidance and supervision after training is one of the measures to actively improve staff's work in the process of QTH with PWDs in the community.
12. Practical application:
In terms of practical application:The thesis provides an overall picture for the QTH staff to reflect from their own assessments combined with feedback from PWDs, their families and stakeholders. The thesis specifically describes the current status of the roles, processes and tasks that QTH staff with PWDs in the community. In addition, the thesis also provides information on some good, flexible and effective methods and activities of some staff and organizations in Ho Chi Minh City.
In terms of training:The theoretical basis and practical research results help training institutions orient their specialized training in the field of community-based management of PWDs, while also detecting the actual needs and gaps in the expertise of practitioners. The results of changes in the work of PWDs after the impact experiment are the basis for showing that an intensive training program and post-training guidance will help improve the capacity of PWDs. Accordingly, the thesis suggests more appropriate intensive training and supervision programs to help develop a team of PWDs who are working and intending to work with PWDs in the community.
In terms of policy:Based on the synthesis of research, international experience and research results on the current status of implementing quality management for people with disabilities in Ho Chi Minh City, including shortcomings, barriers, and difficulties in practice as well as models of factors strongly affecting quality management for people with disabilities in the community, the Thesis helps policy makers and managers at all levels have more scientific basis to build and adjust appropriate policies in promoting professional services and human resources.
13. Further research directions:
- Practical research comparing types of support units in community management with people with disabilities.
- Research on pilot models of quality management in supporting people with disabilities nationwide.
- Building a set of standards in quality management with PWDs from a social work perspective in the context of Vietnam.
14. Published works related to the thesis:
1.Le Thi Nhung, Bui Thi Xuan Mai (2017) “Accessibility to policies and resource mobilization of organizations for people with disabilities in Vietnam”, Proceedings of the International Scientific ConferenceCommunity-based inclusive social development: Opportunities and challenges, Publishing House. Ho Chi Minh City National University, pp.24-35 (ISBN: 978-604-735-5990).
2.Le Thi Nhung (2020), “Roles of internationalnon-governmental organizations in developing social workservices forchildren and personswith disabilitiesin Vietnam”,International Journal for Studies on Children, Women, Elderly and Disabled People, Volume11, Oct. 2020,pp.34-40 (ISSN 0128-309X).
3. Le Thi Nhung(2020), “Challenging livelihoods of persons with disabilities and missing gaps in policies”,Educere-BCM Journal of Social Work (EBJSW),Volume16 (1), June 2020, pp.5-16 (ISSN 2249-1090).
4. Le Thi Nhung (2020), “An intervention program of enhancement on knowledge and skills of social work case managers with persons with disabilities”,International Journal for Quality Research(SCOPUS index, Q2,ISSN 1800-6450).Cfather atInternational Conference on Emerging Issues in Social Sciences and Humanities(ICEISH 2020,eISBN 978-967-2426-14-1).
INFORMATION OF DOCTORAL THESIS
1. Full name: Le Thi Nhung 2. Sex: Female
3. Date of birth: September 20, 1986 4. Place of birth: Hung Yen province
5. Admission decision number: 4618/2016/QD-XHNV Dated 29thDecember 2016
6. Changes in academic process:
- Decision number: 388/QD-XHNV about recognizing the title of thesisand supervisors dated on 28thFebruary, 2017.
- Decision number: 3265/QD-XHNV about adding the supervisor dated on 12thNovember, 2018.
- Decision number: 1016/QD-XHNV about admending the title of thesisdated on 19thApril, 2019.
7. Official thesis title:Social Work Case Management with Persons with Disabilities at the Community in Ho Chi Minh City
8. Major:Social Work9. Code: Pilot training
10. Supervisors:Assoc.Prof. Bui Thi Xuan Mai, Assoc.Prof. Nguyen Thi Thai Lan
11. Summary of the new findings of the thesis:
Firstly,the overview of relevant studies in the world and particularly in Vietnam provided a systematic and scientific theoretical framework onpersons with disabilities (PWDs), case management in general and case management with PWDs with distinguished characteristics, roles and tasks of social workers. Especially, several new concepts on social work case management with PWDs at the community were built in the context of Vietnam.
Secondly,the research with a large scale in local, socio-political and economic context of Ho Chi Minh Cityhas providedwellan overview of current situation on how social workers are performing their roles and tasks in the process of case management with PWDs at the communityin Ho Chi Minh City reflected from different key stakeholders. It revealsseveral good practices in their practical implementation, those of non-governmental agencies for example; However, remarkable limitations and gaps have been newly found. Regarding the SW roles, the staff has partly performed in mobilizing resources, especially from the natural support system of clients (family members, neighbors, etc.) and experts from different expertises. They have also been enabling PWDs to access different social welfare policies. However, the other core functions of social workers basically navigating and coordinating services and support, facilitating and empowering PWDs in social inclusion are weak and infrequently performed. Besides, some common roles such as the educator or counsellor are performed more weakly.
Third,the results also revealed that social workers have partially performed some tasks and activities in the process of case management with PWDs such as making the list of recipients for social welfare, collecting some information about disability and health conditions, education, livelihood and employment of PWDs as well as giving some certain support on social protection. However, the other main tasks are poorly carried out, such as building therapeutic relationships with clients, collecting information and assessing needs in psychological, emotional, life skills, relationships and other social aspects. Planning and implementing plans have received very little attention. Monitoring and evaluating the services and supports are only focused on checking social welfare payments. From the quantitative research, it is indicated that the steps and tasks in the process are closely related. When relevant tasks have not been performed well at a certain stage, it will affect the next steps in the case management process.There is a difference between social workers of Government agencies and non-governmental agencies in implementing the role and tasks.
Forthly,poor performance of social workers on case management roles or tasks can be explained by significant difficulties and barriers stemmed from the limitation on their competencies, gaps in policy mechanisms, low level s and awareness participation of PWDs, their families and communities and leadership and capacities of service agencies. Remarkably, the most common difficulties of social workers are their unclear status, overloaded casework as well as insufficent competencies.
Firthly,thestudy has discovered a model of five groups of factors that have strong and extremely strong effects including awareness and participation of the family and community, strengths and potentialities of PWDs, the effectiveness of legal policy system, leadership and capacities of service agencies and professional competencies of social workers. Among them, the last has been proven to be the most influential factor group.
Lastly,Empirical results show that training for social workers with a combination of theories and practice, especially personal coaching or supervision in daily working is one of the effective measures to enhance competencies of social workers in case management with PWDs at the community.
12. Practical applicability, if any:
For practice,the thesis providesa clear cut for social workersto reflectonheir ownand getthe feedbacks fromthe clients about their case management practice. Itspecifically describesthe current situations on their roles and tasks during the process. It also gives them the reference on good, flexible and effective models or practices of their colleagues in other agencies in Ho Chi Minh City.
For education,the systematical theoretical framework and practical research give the reference for institutions to design specialization training programs in social work case management with PWDs at the community. The training needs and capacity building of the staff have been found out for further notice of training. Advancement of social workers after the intervention programs is a strong evidence for a designation of specialized classroom training and one-to-one coaching. articulate, the thesis suggests more appropriate in-depth training and testing programs to help develop the contingencies of those who are working and oriented to work in this field.
For policy making,the thesis policy helps makers and different management levels a scientific, evidence-based recommendations on developing and adjusting appropriate policies in promoting professional services and capacity building of social workers. It has been drawn on i) lessons learned from international standards, research and good practice, ii) reflections on the current situation of implementing social work case management in Ho Chi Minh City, including barriers, barriers and difficulties in practice, iii) a model of influential factors that strongly affect implementation of this practice.
13. Further research directions, if any:
-Comparative research on service agencies of social work case management with PWDs at the community.
- Case studies on good models of social work case management with PWDs at the community on a larger scale.
- Design ofthestandards on social work case management with PWDs in Vietnam's context.
14. Thesis-related publications:
1. LeThiVelvet,Bui Thi Xuan Mai(2017) “Accessibility to policies and resource mobilization of organizations for people with disabilities in Vietnam”,Proceedings of the international scientific conference on Developing an Inclusive Society through Community Based Approach: Opportunities and Challenges,Ho Chi Minh City University Publishing House, pp.24-35 (ISNB: 978-604-735-5990).
2.Le Thi Nhung (2020), “Roles of internationalnon-governmental organizations in developing social workservices forchildren and personswith disabilitiesin Vietnam”,International Journal for Studies on Children, Women, Elderly and Disabled People, Volume11, Oct. 2020,pp.34-40 (ISSN 0128-309X).
3. Le Thi Nhung(2020), “Challenging livelihoods of persons with disabilities and missing gaps in policies”,Educere-BCM Journal of Social Work (EBJSW),Volume16 (1), June 2020, pp.5-16 (ISSN 2249-1090).
4. Le Thi Nhung (2020), “An intervention program of enhancement on knowledge and skills of social work case managers with persons with disabilities”,International Journal for Quality Research(SCOPUS index, Q2,ISSN 1800-6450).Cfather atInternational Conference on Emerging Issues in Social Sciences and Humanities(ICEISH 2020,eISBN 978-967-2426-14-1).
