- Project Leader : Matsumoto Hitomi (Kyoto University, Graduate School of Medicine)
Outline of Research
Poor medical and healthcare resources lead local governments in some areas of rural Vietnam to recruit citizen home-visit healthcare volunteers to support adults and children with disabilities. The volunteers play a key role in preventing the decline of the physical and psychological condition of people with disabilities and in supporting family caregivers. This research will investigate this unique support system for disabled persons in rural Vietnam.
This research will develop a semi-structured interview guide for the purpose of assessing the motivation of citizen volunteers in the home-visit healthcare support program. Useful information and ideas for creating the interview guide will be found in the activity records of the Community-Based Rehabilitation Support Group, the Japanese non-profit Organization working with the citizen volunteer support program in Tay Ninh province, Vietnam, and other documents of the CSEAS library and Medical library in Kyoto University. Following this, quantitative field research, which uses the interview guide, will be conducted in Hao Duc Village to investigate what factors promote the motivation of citizens in the home-visit healthcare support volunteer program in the area today.
Description
The establishment of citizen home-visit healthcare volunteers contributes to improving the physical and psychological condition of adults and children with disabilities in some parts of rural Vietnam. This local healthcare system mainly relies on unpaid home-based volunteers who are recruited from communities and trained to support people with disabilities and their families. The program is widely discussed as a successful case that forms the cornerstone of community-based support programs as a part of a sustainable community health care system. However, the education, incentives and rewards strategies of the volunteers are still not well researched. Actually, the volunteer-based program is facing some serious challenges, including that of remuneration. Currently, the majority of volunteers are not remunerated, although they spare prolonged periods of time and their own resources to help people. The research will consider strategies to improve the volunteer environment and secure healthcare personnel critical for policymakers and local governments.
The aims of this research are as follows;
There are two purposes in this research. The first is to explore the factors that motivate citizens in the home-visit healthcare support volunteer program. The second is to specify effective volunteer organization strategies for recruitment and ways to improve the quality of the volunteer environment.
This research is significant for developing effective policies for volunteer healthcare systems in local communities with poor public healthcare resources. The healthcare workforce is insufficient in contemporary Vietnam, which has low numbers of physicians and nurses in comparison with other Southeast Asian countries. In this context, non-professional care workers such as citizen volunteers can play a key role in the improvement of public health in areas that are poor in healthcare resources. To identify the factors that motivate volunteers is crucial to bringing about a better solution.
The outcome of this research will help local stakeholders, hospitals, and healthcare centers to develop more effective public health strategies to help people with disabilities. This in turn will contribute to promoting the social engagement and participation of people with disabilities in the community. In this sense, this research may contribute to promoting the well-being of entire communities.
 The home-visits healthcare support volunteer work by a local citizen |
 Hao Duoc Village, Tay Ninh |