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Building mental health services for PLHIV in Quang Ninh
10:5' 9/8/2010
Following the design of the study “Impact of palliative care intervention in Quang Ninh, Vietnam” co-ordinated by the Family Health International (FHI) and RTCCD, Van Don out-patient clinic (OPC) has been chosen as the target site for a pilot palliative care service for people living with HIV (PLHIV). Mental health care is one key component of the service, aiming to increase the patients’ quality of life through screening, diagnosing, consulting, supporting and treating mental disorders and illnesses for PLHIV and their families. 

 
The TuNa Clinic was invited by FHI to be responsible for training and technically supporting the OPC mental health team (who include health workers, peers, and home-based care staff) in skills for providing mental health care services. During July to September 2009, TuNa has conducted 3 training courses focused on providing the OPC mental health with basic understanding on mental health care, principals and procedures in the provision of mental health care services at the OPC, instruction of Standards Operating Procedures in diagnosis and treatment of depression and anxiety for PLHIV. Specially, the courses introduced “Duong sinh TuNa” as an effective therapy to help PLHIV cope with adverse physical and mental problems.

 

From October 2009 to March 2010, Dr. La Thi Buoi – Head of TuNa clinic – carried out 4 mentoring trips to OPC Van Don for supervision and technical support for the performance of the mental health care team in service provision. The aim of the mentoring is to help the team recognize their strengths and how to improve their operation of mental health care services. Moreover, the mentoring provides the team with opportunities for on-the-job training in the standard operating procedures (SOP). The 5th mentoring trip is scheduled on April 2010. The mentoring will intentionally finish on June 2010.