Institute for Social Development Studies

BackgroundDespite the high burden of depression in Vietnam, little is known about the knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, and practices among Vietnamese people with depression in contemporary society. The study aims to explore in depth knowledge, attitudes, and practices related to depression among those with depressive symptoms of depression in contemporary Vietnamese society.MethodsThis is a qualitative study with 40 adults, 18–64 years old, with symptoms of depression. In-depth interviews were conducted to explore knowledge (symptoms, causes, treatment), attitudes, and practices to seek support or care for depression.ResultsParticipants demonstrated relatively adequate literacy regarding depression symptoms and treatment. Most people with depression know about psychotherapy and pharmacological treatment. Stigma related to depression seems lesser compared to that in the past. People with depression receive support from family and friends. A significant knowledge-practice gap was found, concealment of illness is common, access to care is limited, medicines are frequently discontinued, and praying and offering to altars to treat mental illness still exist. Based on analysis guided by the ‘glocalization theory’ we offer an explanatory account of the current state off knowledge, attitudes, and practices toward depression amongst people living with depression in Vietnam. This analysis recognizes the co-existence of global and local influences. People are creating and adapting their “glocal” views, attitudes, and norms around depression as well as mental illness. This explanatory model recognizes the co-existence of global and local influences, the influence of “glocal” dynamics to rationales the knowledge, attitudes and practices of people related to depression, therefore, it helps better explain and sharpen the responses to depression in Vietnam.ConclusionsSocietal changes have influenced the knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors towards depression in Vietnam in positive ways; however, historical, cultural challenges continue, while new challenges are emerging. Our findings point to the need for renewed, continued efforts to improve mental health related awareness, while simultaneously improving the availability, accessibility, and responsiveness of mental health services. These efforts should take into account both global and local influences on how people in Vietnam think and act regarding mental health issues.Trial registrationClinicaltrials.gov, NCT06456775. Registered June 13, 2024 – Retrospectively registered, https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT06456775?cond=depression%26intr=Tele-SSM%26rank=1.

Our research proposes ‘mixed legal transplant’ as a new concept in theories of legal transplantation. While the concept of legal transplantation is real, the phenomenon is much more complicated than what is often depicted and discussed by the academic community. In modern times, legal transplantation is often an informed reception by independent sovereign nations or people of two or more sets of rules from different jurisdictions, rather than a simplistic and passive reception of rules from one country to another. Using Vietnam as a case study, this article analyzes the deliberate consideration of two different models of precedent in the civil and common law traditions by Vietnamese lawmakers, and their choice of a mixed legal transplant in the hope that it would be best suited to the needs of a socialist country in transition. Its methods and results, however, are still in doubt and have been criticized as possibly creating uncertainty due to their structural incoherence. This article therefore concludes by proposing recommendations based on legal tradition to correct the misuse of the mixed legal transplant in Vietnam, and we hope that these recommendations can serve as a model for other countries.

Protecting the rights of the lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgender, intersex, and queers (LGBTIQ) population requires, first and foremost, a proper understanding of their sexual orientation and gender identity. This study highlights a severe misunderstanding and lack of knowledge among health professionals in Vietnam with regard to the men who have sex with men (MSM) and transgenders. This study uses (i) a survey based on the convenience sampling method among 150 health workers that covered 61 questions and (ii) 12 in-depth interviews in two metropolitan centres in Vietnam, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh city. Three main topics are explored: (i) the general knowledge of healthcare workers about MSM and transgenders; (ii) their knowledge about the sexual reproductive health and human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) risks of MSM and transgenders; and (iii) their attitudes and behaviors towards MSM and transgenders. One of the notable findings is how prevalent the misperceptions are across the board, namely, in staff of both sexes, in both cities, at various kinds of medical facilities, at different work positions and educational levels. Half of the respondents consider transgenders to have a curable mental problem while 45% say MSM only have sex with males. Most remarkably, 12.7% state if they have any choice, they want nothing to do with MSM and transgenders. The study finds there is a considerable percentage of health professionals who lack knowledge about the diversity of sexual orientation, gender identity, and health issues related to the sexual minorities and gender non-conforming population. To improve the clinical process for serving these at-risk groups, the study suggests the continual education for the health workers needs to be added to their formal as well as in-job training.

This study examines the pre- and post-clinical issues in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) care and treatment for women and girls of high-risk population groups—namely sex workers, injecting drug users, women living with HIV, primary sexual partners of people living with HIV, adolescent girls who are children of these groups, and migrant young girls and women—in five provinces and cities in Vietnam. Through a sample of 241 surveyed participants and 48 respondents for in-depth interviews and 32 respondents in the focus group discussions, the study identifies multiple barriers that keep these groups from receiving the proper health care that is well within their human rights. Most respondents rated HIV testing as easily accessible, yet only 18.9% of the surveyed women living with HIV disclosed their infection status, while 37.8% gave no information at the most recent prenatal care visit. The level of knowledge and proper practices of sexual and reproductive health (SRH) care also remains limited. Meanwhile, modern birth control methods have yet to be widely adopted among these populations: only 30.7% of respondents reported using condoms when having sex with their husband. This increases the risks of unwanted pregnancy and abortion, as well as vulnerability to sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and HIV transmission. On the other hand, HIV-related stigma and discrimination at health care settings are still pervasive, which create significant barriers for patients to access proper care services. Based on these results, six recommendations to improve SRH status of women and girls of populations at high risk are put forward.

Since the late 1990s there has been a rising trend of Vietnamese women migrating to neighbouring countries (Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, and China) for marriage. Previous studies of such cross-border marriages have emphasized either issues of choice and agency for women, or their poverty and victimhood. This chapter analyses this trend along the lines of the debate on the East Asian model of welfare and family policy, with case studies in Taiwan and South Korea. It views commercially arranged transnational marriages (CATM) as an institution that connects changing gendered regimes of social reproduction at the sending and receiving ends. Mediated by a combination of asymmetrical relations – gender, class, age, ethnicity, and national belonging– this institution operates in a transnational space through which material and symbolic resources are circulated. These in turn construct subjectivities and identities for participating actors. There is a dimension of trans-masculinity embodied in the practices of CATM and this requires further exploration regarding informed consent and the rights of its users. Beyond this, CATM should be further analysed in the context of changing family welfare and intergenerational care as gendered regimes, and such an analysis should also address how households adapt and devise new strategies to sustain and reproduce themselves economically, socially, and culturally. Such an understanding can help open the research agenda on social policy and rights and provide a regional perspective.

This paper documents the experiences of Vietnamese migrant workers who migrated to Japan as industrial “trainees” during early and mid-2000, some of whom became unauthorized workers. Based on in-depth interviews and survey data collected in Vietnam in 2008 and 2009 from migrants who had returned from Japan, this paper explores the factors that led some workers to slip from legal to irregular work. Our analysis shows how the recruitment process in Vietnam, the implementation of the trainee/intern program in Japan, and migrant networks together create the conditions that encourage or discourage some workers from working in the irregular job sector and overstaying their visas. We situate this argument within the conceptualization of unauthorized labor migration as a structurally embedded phenomenon.

Due to institutional legacies of the authoritarian regime, South Korea after the transition to democracy failed to establish a neo-corporatist policy-making body at the national level. Instead, micro-corporatist practices that produced many publicized instances of labormanagement cooperation in individual enterprises substituted the failed neo-corporatist concertation. This article aims to clarify the mechanisms of micro-corporatism in South Korea. Case studies of three large firms illustrate how changes in management strategies and intemal union politics produced a combination of industrial peace and welfare-generating institutions at the firm level. The article concludes with a brief discussion of the economic and political implications of micro-corporatism.

Sabah has been the recipient of countless migrants for centuries. The most recent of these are largely Indonesians and Filipinos who come for economic reasons. The current economic turmoil has affected the capacity of the state to provide employment to both local and foreign workers. While Sabah is working towards reducing its dependence on foreign workers, it is likely that Sabah will continue to depend on migrant workers in the short and immediate term. The Sabah experience suggests that a more systematic approach is needed to regulate the flow of migrant labor in the region. But for this to succeed, the support and cooperation of all the relevant parties would be essential.