The health, education and labour sectors in Vietnam have over the past 23 years worked closely together to provide rehabilitation services to people with disabilities as well as finding them employment.

Set up in 1987, the model of community-based rehabilitation (CBR) used for Vietnam’s disabled has won world acclaim for its high feasibility, effectiveness and level of humanity at a meeting on the founding of the Asia-Pacific CBR Association in Thailand in 2009.

According to Associate Professor Dr. Tran Trong Hai, Chairman of the Vietnam Rehabilitation Association (VINAREHA), the model is based on the concerted efforts of three different sectors, with healthcare playing the core role.

The health sector is in charge of providing diagnosis and rehabilitation. The educational sector meanwhile, is responsible for evaluating children with disabilities and providing them with suitable kinds of education. The labour, war invalids and social affair system however, takes charge of providing vocational training and jobs for people.

Disabled people, mainly children and people of working age, currently account for 5-7 percent of Vietnam ’s population.

A recent survey on CBR activities in Vietnam showed that the CBR model has been applied in 46 out of 63 cities and provinces nationwide, providing healthcare services and rehabilitation treatment to 64 percent of adults and 71 percent of children with disabilities.

Some 50 percent of disabled people have access to education and 24 percent have entered employment.

The success of the CBR model has laid the foundations for Vietnam ’s rehabilitation policy, legislation concerning disabled people and the country’s strategic plan for improving access to health care and education for disabled people.

Vietnam is striving to provide health services for 75 percent of all disabled people and education for 70 percent of disabled children by the end of this year.

Asides from policies for disabled people, the CBR network has been set up and developed continuously. Rehabilitation clinics have been established in all central hospitals and most provincial hospitals in 63 cities and provinces and so far, more than 21,000 communal and 8,600 district health workers have received training on rehabilitation techniques.

In the future, the CBR will be integrated into the national programme and be prioritised in calls for international support, said Associate Professor Hai./.