Call to standardise social work

00:32' 18/04/2008 (GMT+7)
A teacher at the northern province of Hai Duong’s social sponsoring centre helps deaf children make clothes. There has been a call for the Government to issue laws regulating the role of social workers.
VietNamNet Bridge - Responding to a call for his Mum from a pale-skinned, paralysed boy, the nurse wipes food from his grubby face and continues to spoon-feed him.
It is part of a day’s work for Nguyen Thi Hao, who works at the Ha Noi Centre for Disabled Children and the Elderly.
"After spoon-feeding 10 paralysed children, I clean the house, then take all the children and wash their hands," Hao said.
The 42-year-old centre located at Ba Vi Township in Ha Tay Province has 72 social workers. Most are nurses.
They take care of 304 people, of whom 170 are elderly. The rest are disabled children. Twenty-eight are under five years of age and 15 are new-born babies.
"Some staff have worked at the centre for more than 10 years. The average monthly salary is VND1.5 million a head," said centre director Nguyen Trong Pham. "All work with the thought that it is relieving pain and discomfort for the unfortunate."
Deputy Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Le Bach Hong has said it’s time to professionalise social workers and put them on the State payroll.
At present, wages for social workers at centres for the elderly or children with HIV/AIDS in orphanages are paid by each centre.
Some social workers are forced to leave work at the centres to find a better income at health centres under the State payroll system.
"If medical exposure for social workers is the same, we must look for places where we are offered a better salary," said one worker at the Ba Vi Centre for HIV-infected children.
Social workers belong to groups enjoying a State monthly allowance.
The Ministry’s Social Sponsoring Department reports that in Viet Nam, there are 7.5 million old people, 5.3 million disabled people and 1.4 million children living in difficult conditions. All need the help of social workers.
Also in need of help are people in Viet Nam’s poorer communes, rural labourers pushed out of work because of rapid urbanisation and those suffering from the growing number of social evils.
However, there are only about 20,000 semi-professional social workers throughout the nation.
"Untrained social workers often lack essential skills and awareness about welfare work," said Nguyen Hai Huu, director of the Social Sponsoring Department. "As a result, job efficiency is far from that required."
For example, care givers for sick elderly people should have some medical skills, however urban families often employ untrained rural women to take care of patients at home.
Unclear role
The role of social workers in Viet Nam is unclear. Many people don’t understand what they are and what they are supposed to do, said deputy minister Hong.
He said Viet Nam was in the process of creating a legal corridor to develop social work as a professional career.
The Ministry has sent a draft to the Government on the subject. If approved, implemention will be carried out from 2009 to 2015.
According to the draft, social workers should be trained at college-university level in Viet Nam.
Hong said the social-worker network must keep pace with the development of the nation and focus on retraining grassroots welfare employees working at ward and commune-level.
The process should focus on building up key social workers. At least two should be provided for each district and 10 for each social sponsoring centre.
Key workers should return to retrain and develop the network in their workplaces.
(Source: VNS