Volunteering with Trinh Foundation Australia (TFA) is a unique opportunity to support the speech and language therapy profession in Vietnam. Here, Gold Coast based Senior Speech Pathologist Megan Nevell shares her experiences as an in-country volunteer in Da Nang, Vietnam. &nbsp;

In Megan&#39;s role as an international clinical educator, she supervised five fourth-year Vietnamese Bachelor of Speech and Language Therapy (SLT) students on their final paediatric placement plus a Masters of SLT graduate who was working on her supervision skills. The work involved seeing five clients per day in an outpatient hospital clinic. This was possible with the help of an interpreter who would interpret their discussions during assessments and intervention sessions as well as translate written information to English and Vietnamese such as session plans, progress notes, handouts and feedback.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Megan&#39;s impressions of Vietnam were overwhelmingly positive. She described it as a beautiful country with friendly, helpful people who try their best to communicate and share their culture with visitors. &nbsp;

&ldquo;Vietnam is a beautiful country with really delicious, flavourful and fresh food. It has a rich history with many cultural experience.&rdquo; 

- Megan Nevell&nbsp; 

&nbsp;When asked about the importance of capacity building, Megan highlighted how new the speech and language therapy profession is to Vietnam and how limited access to services is. &nbsp;

&ldquo;There is a small number of qualified speech therapists in the cities, and a high demand for services. People from regional areas do not have access to speech pathology services, or they would have to travel far, which is costly to them. The profession is not recognised to the same level as other professionals. Ongoing advocacy and capacity building of current speech therapists, clinics, schools, hospitals, and universities are very much needed.&rdquo; 

- Megan Nevell 

Megan&#39;s favourite part of volunteering abroad was the opportunity to work with locals, which allowed her to experience living there like one. She had the chance to connect with people, eat shared meals, and travel on a motorbike to get to work. Her biggest takeaway from the experience was the richness of the experiences she had, which was much deeper than a typical holiday. For fellow speechies considering volunteering in Vietnam with TFA, Megan highly recommends it, especially if you are adaptable and enjoy varied work experiences. Volunteers need to be flexible and able to think on their feet in a setting that is different from what they are used to. &nbsp;

Megan&#39;s insights and recommendations for future volunteers include being aware that Vietnamese people do not use greetings in the same way as Westerners and that they have different greetings depending on their relationship with the person. Additionally, volunteers should take advantage of the array of delicious vegetarian restaurants and coffee shops in Da Nang. Chay An Lan, Ans Vegetarian Cuisine and FM Tea &amp; Coffee were just a few of her favourites.&nbsp;

Read about Megan Nevell's experience working with local students and patients, her impressions of Vietnam, and the importance of capacity building for speech therapy services in the country.

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Volunteering as a speech pathologist in Vietnam with Trinh Foundation Australia: read about Megan Nevell's experience working with local students and patients, her impressions of Vietnam, and the importance of capacity building for speech therapy services in the country.

Bridging the Gap: My Volunteer Journey in Vietnam with Trinh Foundation Australia 

In Vietnam, more than 64% of the population live in rural areas 1&nbsp;significantly limiting access to appropriate rehabilitation care. This is particularly true for people with disabilities who have difficulty travelling long distances. Country estimates report fewer than one physical therapist per 10,000 people, and only 2% of Vietnamese children receive rehabilitation care when needed 2. By contrast, 80% of the population uses a smartphone 3. Even families with very low incomes typically have access to a mobile device.&nbsp;

With its background in innovative humanitarian response and rehabilitation expertise, Humanity &amp; Inclusion has designed the OpenTeleRehab software as an adaptive solution to ensure both access and quality care for rehabilitation service users facing these obstacles.

OpenTeleRehab is described by HI as an open source, multidisciplinary telerehabilitation software that allows its users to access tailor-made rehabilitation treatment plans adapted to a variety of conditions. It enables rehabilitation professionals to provide continued support and follow-up via chat or video communication, including plan adherence and goal achievement tracking.

&ldquo;Patients are taught in-service by their therapist how to use the patient mobile application, then, once they are home they can access their custom treatment plan by smartphone. The treatment plan can include exercises, information and educational material and questionnaires. Therapists can organise regular follow-up audio or video calls and track patient progress and adherence to the plan,&rdquo; said&nbsp;Martin Jacobs, HI Telerehabilitation Project Manager.

TFA was delighted to contribute as a project partner through the work of our wonderful volunteer Speech Pathologist Shing Yee Chai, who developed a series of voice and speech exercises that are now available via the open access telerehabilitation library. We are confident that these valuable resources will support many Vietnamese people in their recovery.&nbsp;

[1] https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.RUR.TOTL.ZS?locations=VN

[2] https://www.unicef.org/vietnam/reports/children-disabilities-viet-nam

[3] https://www.talkvietnam.com/2017/11/smartphone-users-cover-84-of-vn-population/

Humanity & Inclusion has designed the OpenTeleRehab software as an adaptive solution to ensure both access & quality care for patients living in rural areas with limited access to appropriate rehabilitation care.

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 With help from Trinh Foundation Australia & other project partners, Humanity & Inclusion's OpenTeleRehab software is breaking barriers to rehabilitation services in rural Vietnam with an open-source, telerehabilitation software. 

Breaking Barriers to Rehabilitation Services in Vietnam One Click At A Time

National Tour of Vietnam&nbsp;in&nbsp;Paediatric Dysphagia to&nbsp;provide&nbsp;continuing professional development.



TFA are looking for an experienced speech pathologist to deliver workshops and clinical mentoring in paediatric dysphagia.



This is a fantastic opportunity to see Southern, Central and Northern Vietnam and to work with our enthusiastic professionals who are pioneering the Speech Therapy profession in Vietnam.



The national tour will&nbsp;travel to Ho&nbsp;Chi Minh City, Danang and Hanoi.



If you are keen to get involved &ndash;&nbsp;&nbsp;contact us through or Contact page



With so many children in Vietnam with significant disabilities and limited access to services, our local specialists need your help.



Do you know someone who could help Trinh Foundation Australia deliver a national tour in paediatric dysphagia?



We hope to run the tour around 3 &ndash; 22nd of August if possible.

​​​​​​​National Tour of Vietnam in Paediatric Dysphagia to provide continuing professional development.

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Volunteers need Paediatric Dysphagia

Recently one of our TFA interpreters Nhat (Ng&ocirc; Đức Nhật)&nbsp; helped the International Dysphagia Diet Standardisation Committee (IDDSI) with translating their framework version 2.0 into Vietnamese.

The translation is available through the link&nbsp;<a href="https://iddsi.org/Translations/Available-for-Review" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">https://iddsi.org/Translations/Available-for-Review</a>&nbsp;.

Nhat is seeking feedback from Vietnamese SLTs on the translation.

Thank-you Nhat for completing this important work.

Recently one of our TFA interpreters Nhat (Ngô Đức Nhật)  helped

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IDDSI International Dysphagia Diet Standardisation Initiative

Since 2009 Trinh Foundation Australia (TFA) has responded to several requests to support Speech and Language Therapy education programs in Vietnam, beginning when the ENT Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) asked us to run a short course on aspects of speech therapy for doctors and nurses.



In 2010, University of Medicine Pham Ngoc Thach (UPNT) in HCMC sought our support in running a 2-year postgraduate certificate course.



This course saw the commencement of an enduring partnership with Australian Volunteers International (AVI) which placed six full time Australian speech and language therapists at UPNT to support the rollout of training courses over the next 7 years.



During that time, two 2-year postgraduate certificate courses in all aspects of speech and language therapy for children and adults were run (2010-2012 and 2012-2014) and two 1-year postgraduate certificate courses for speech and language therapy for children only (2016 and 2017).



These courses trained 65 SLTs. UPNT now independently runs these 1-year courses.



In 2017, TFA entered a valued partnership with the Medical Committee of Netherlands Vietnam (MCNV), funded by USAID through Viet Health, to develop and deliver pilot degree programs: a 2-year Master degree in the University of Medicine and Pharmacy (HCMC), and a 4-year bachelor degree in Da Nang University of Medical Technology and Pharmacy.



The 14 Masters degree graduates will become the lecturers in Bachelor degrees rolling out in designated medical universities across Vietnam.



The next Bachelor to commence will be at Hai Duong Medical Technical University in the north of Vietnam in late 2021.



TFA&rsquo;s model of capacity building and sustainability is being met through these strong partnerships with funding bodies, NGOs, volunteers, universities and the Vietnamese community.

Since 2009 Trinh Foundation Australia (TFA) has responded to several 

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Supporting SALT Education Programs in Vietnam

Congratulations to fellow TFA board member Associate Professor Sally Hewat as this year&rsquo;s recipient of the prestigious Elizabeth Usher Memorial Award from Speech Pathology Australia.



As well as being a hardworking member of the TFA Board of Directors since 2013, Sally has made a major contribution to the development of speech therapy services across south-east Asia, in addition to her role as Assistant Dean, International at the University of Newcastle Faculty of Education and Arts and leadership roles in a range of professional organisations.



The team would also like to acknowledge her exceptional support of Dr Dien during his four years in Australia studying at the University of Newcastle.

Congratulations to fellow TFA board member Associate Professor Sally 

Bridging the Gap: My Volunteer Journey in Vietnam with Trinh Foundation Australia

Breaking Barriers to Rehabilitation Services in Vietnam One Click At A Time

Volunteers need Paediatric Dysphagia

IDDSI International Dysphagia Diet Standardisation Initiative

Supporting SALT Education Programs in Vietnam

Congratulations Associate Professor Sally Hewat

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