Social construction of disability and its impacts to welfare practice in Vietnamese contexts

This paper will be presented at The First International Conference on Welfare Issues in the ASEAN Region, from 26 Oct to 2 November 2011, Jakarta and Bali, Indonesia.

Introduction

Recent statistics by Vietnam Ministry of Labours, Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA) identify that there is more than 6.7 million people with disabilities (PWD) or more than 6.34% of the population of Vietnam (Ministry of Labors-Invalids and Social Affairs 2004; UNICEF Vietnam 2010). Vietnamese Government tries to setup a variety of legal documents and social policies in order to promote the life of PWD. However, they are still living in poor conditions and facing negative social attitudes as well as experience their own difficulties in accessing the social supports from welfare systems (Ministry of Labors-Invalids and Social Affairs 2004; Le Bach Duong, Khuat Thu Hong & Nguyen Duc Vinh 2008; UNICEF Vietnam 2010). The welfare policies toward PWD has been changed but there are still limited in providing sustainable services and supports for PWD and their families as well as creating an inclusive setting for their social participation.

Reasons for such situations are expressed as the lack of social awareness on disability; the immature understandings of social position of PWD in society; the existed social policies are not effective in practice and in creating the specific services as well (The United States Agency for International Development 2005; Le Bach Duong, Khuat Thu Hong & Nguyen Duc Vinh 2008). The meaning of disability and its social understanding are very significant for changing the social attitudes toward PWD and for changing the way of delivering social supports for them. This situation leads to require more considerations in social research about the social construction of disability in Vietnamese contexts, in both policy approaches and social understandings. Having the details of such understandings also creates the significant impact to welfare practice to the life of PWD and also improves the social inclusion aspect for PWD. This also aims at mapping the harmonised and sustainable society for all (UNICEF Vietnam 2010).

This paper, as a part of my research project on social inclusion of children with disabilities (CWD) in Vietnam, focuses on the general understanding and practice on disability from policy analysis and surveys. Focusing on the analysis of policy and the daily understandings in disability is the way to identify the gaps between the policy and practice in area of disability. This work paper aims at making the recommendation for promoting social inclusion of CWD in Vietnam in ideas of social welfare reform and social work practice.

From the survey with 210 participants and the policy analysis, the initial findings on this paper present some aspects of knowledge, attitude and practice (Kaplan & Parsons) on disability which are presented as following: Firstly, there is a significant changes in legal documents and social policies related to disability in Vietnam, especially from 2006, in terms of its name, its contents for improving the life of PWD with inclusive approach, however the meaning of disability is not clear in policies. Secondly, the understanding on disability is mainly based on medical/individual model which focuses on the disability’s causes in words of health or individual problem rather than viewing the social causes in aspects of the social barriers and restriction, in additions almost policies focus on the problems of PWD rather than the social aspects. Thirdly, social attitude toward disability and PWD seems to be very empathetic, however it is less regard to CWD’s ability as well as there are more attitudes on charity giving and supporting than helping them to be independent in their life. And finally, in spite of positive knowledge and attitudes on disability, there is still limitation on practical activities towards CWD/PWD from society in daily life.

(Van Kham Tran, PhD Candidate, School of Psychology, Social Work and Social Policy, University of South Australia. Email: travk002@mymail.unisa.edu.au)