Full name: Le Thi Nhung                                     2. Sex: Female

Date of birth: 20/09/1986                                   4. Place of birth: Hung Yen province

5. Admission decision number:  4618/2016/QD-XHNV  Dated 29th December 2016

6. Changes in academic process:

- Decision number: 388/QD-XHNV about recognizing the title of thesis and supervisors dated on 28th February, 2017.

- Decision number: 3265/QD-XHNV about adding the supervisor dated on 12th November, 2018.

- Decision number: 1016/QD-XHNV about admending the title of thesis dated on 19th April, 2019.

7. Official thesis title: Social Work Case Management with Persons with Disabilities at the Community in Ho Chi Minh City

8. Major: Social Work                            9. Code: Pilot training

10. Supervisors: Assoc.Prof. Bui Thi Xuan Mai, Assoc.Prof. Nguyen Thi Thai Lan

11. Summary of the new findings of the thesis:

Firstly, the overview of relevant studies in the world and particularly in Vietnam provided a systematic and scientific theoretical framework on persons with disabilities (PWDs), case management in general and case management with PWDs with distinguished characteristics, roles and stasks of social workers. Especially, several new concepts on social work case management with PWDs at the community were built in the context of Vietnam.

Secondly, the research with a large scale in local, socio-political and economic context of Ho Chi Minh City has provided well an overview of current situation on how social workers are performing their roles and tasks in the process of case management with PWDs at the community in Ho Chi Minh City reflected from different key stakeholders. It reveals several good practices in their practical implementation, those of non-governmental agencies for example; However, remarkable limitations and gaps have been newly found. Regarding the SW roles, the staff has partly performed in mobilizing resources, especially from the natural support system of clients (family members, neighbours, etc.) and experts from different expertises. They have been also enabling PWDs to access different social welfare policies. Nevertheless, the other core functions of social workers namely navigating and coordinating services and support, facilitating and empowering PWDs in social inclusion are weak and infrequently performed. Besides, some common roles such as the educator or counsellor are performed more weakly.

Thirdly, the results also reveal that social workers have partially performed some tasks and activities in the process of case management with PWDs such as making the list of recipients for social welfare,  collecting some information about disability and health conditions, education, livelihood and employment of PWDs as well as giving some certain support on social protection. However, the other main tasks are poorly carried out, such as building therapeutic relationships with clients, collecting information and assessing needs in psychological, emotional, life skills, relationships and other social aspects. Planning and implementing plans have received very little attention. Monitoring and evaluating the services and supports are only focused on checking social welfare payment. From the quantitative research, it is indicated that the steps and tasks in the process are closely related. When relevant tasks have not been performed well at a certain stage, it will affect the next steps in the case management process. There is a difference between social workers of governmental agencies and non-governmental agencies in implementing the role and tasks.

Fourthly, poor performance of social workers on case management roles or tasks could be explained by significant difficulties and barriers stemmed from the limitation on their competencies, gaps in policy mechanisms, low level sawareness and participation of PWDs, their families and communities and leadership and capacities of service agencies. Remarkably, the most common difficulties of social workers are their unclear status, overloaded casework as well as insufficent competencies.

Fifthly, the study has discovered a model of five groups of factors that have strong and extremely strong effects including awareness and participation of the family and community, strengths and potentialities of PWDs, the efficacy of legal policy system, leadership and capacities of service agencies and professional competences of social workers.  Among them, the last has been proved to be the most influential factor group.

Lastly, empirical results show that training for social workers with a combination of theories and practice, especially personal coaching or supervision in daily working is one of the effective measures to enhance competencies of social workers in case management with PWDs at the community.

12. Practical applicability, if any:

For practice, the thesis provides a clear cut for social workers to reflect on their own and get the feedbacks from the clients about their case management practice. It specifically describes the current situations on their roles and tasks during the process. It also gives them the reference on good, flexible and effective models or practices of their colleagues in other agencies in Ho Chi Minh City.

For education, the systematical theoretical framework and practical research give the reference for institutions to design specialization training programs in social work case management with PWDs at the community. The training needs and capacity building of the staff have been found out for further notice of training. Advancement of social workers after the intervention programs is a strong evidence for a designation of specialization classroom training and one-to-one coaching. Accordingly, the dissertation suggests more appropriate in-depth training and testing programs to help develop the contingent of those who are working and oriented to work in this field.

For policy making, the thesis helps policy makers and different management levels a scientific, evidence- based recommendations on developing and adjusting appropriate policies in promoting professional services and capacity building of social workers. It has been drawn on i) lessons learnt from international standards, research and good practice, ii) reflection on the current situation of implementing social work case management in Ho Chi Minh City, including shortcomings, barriers and difficulties in practice, iii) a model of influential factors that strongly affect implementation of this practice.

13. Further research directions, if any:

- Comparative research on service agencies of social work case management with PWDs at the community.

- Case studies on good models of social work case management with PWDs at the community on a larger scale.

- Design of the standards on social work case management with PWDs in Vietnam’s context.

14. Thesis-related publications:

1. Le Thi Nhung, Bui Thi Xuan Mai (2017) “Accessibility to policies and resource mobilization of organizations for people with disabilities in Vietnam”, Proceedings of the international scientific conference on Developing an Inclusive Society through Community Based Approach: Opportunities and Challenges, Ho Chi Minh City University Publishing House, pp. 24-35 (ISNB: 978-604-735-5990).

2. Le Thi Nhung (2020), “Roles of international non-governmental organizations in developing social work services for children and persons with disabilities in Vietnam”, International Journal for Studies on Children, Women, Elderly and Disabled People, Vol 11, Oct. 2020, pp.34-40 (ISSN 0128-309X).

3. Le Thi Nhung (2020), “Challenging livelihoods of persons with disabilities and missing gaps in policies”, Educere-BCM Journal of Social Work (EBJSW), Vol 16 (1), June 2020, pp.5-16 (ISSN 2249-1090).

4. Le Thi Nhung (2020), “An intervention program of enhancement on knowledge and skills of social work case managers with persons with disabilities”, International Journal for Quality Research (SCOPUS index, Q2, ISSN 1800-6450). Công bố tại International Conference on Emerging Issues in Social Sciences and Humanities (ICEISH 2020, eISBN 978-967-2426-14-1).