Vu Thi Tuong Vi, MPH, From Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, received a bachelor’s degree in Sociology in 1999 from the Social Science and Humanities University, HCMC. She then joined the Ho Chi Minh City AIDS Committee as Head of the Drug Addiction Treatment Program and Deputy Head of the Harm Reduction Department for seven years. During this time, her team was responsible for planning, implementing and monitoring Addiction Treatment programs such as administering Methadone, addiction treatment counseling, the recovery support group, case management for the patient’s family to reduce stigma and discrimination.
After obtaining her Master in Public Health from Flinders University, Australia, she consulted for the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA) to develop an operational Manual for community-based drug addiction treatment. In 2015, she joined the HIV-Addiction Technology Transfer Center at the University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Ho Chi Minh City as Master Counselor trainer and Coordinator. During this time, she mostly focused on the workforce’s pre- and in service development based on evidence in Vietnam and interventions using evidence-based practices, especially for the most vulnerable groups such as women who were injecting drug users. Currently, she also research coordinator for study funded by NIH namely “ Sreen, Treat and Retain Meth-using people with OUD at methadone clinic” in HCMC (R01DA050486)
She also has consulted for the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Vietnam in developing training with a focus on women substance-users and using evidence-based intervention to address HIV among stimulant-users in Vietnam
She has done research in applying and/or increasing the quality of services, providing evidence-based and comprehensive services for LGBTs, SUDs and HIV patients and the provision of methadone treatment, especially in the context of reduced funding from international donors.
At policy level, her work advocated seeing people with SUD, who have a long history of misunderstanding in Vietnam, as patients rather than as a social evil.
Abstract
A qualitative investigation of patient dropout in methadone maintenance clinics in Ho Chi Minh City
Background: Patients who are receiving MMT for opioid dependence have a lower risk of relapse and blood borne disease transmission, and a better quality of life. However, over 20% of methadone patients in HCMC dropped out of treatment in the first year of the regimen. The purpose of this qualitative study was to identify reasons for patient dropout in order to improve treatment delivery.
Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 14 patients, 6 health care workers, and 1 peer educator.
Results: Reasons for treatment dropout were classified into individual, program, and external factors. Individual factors included patient perceptions that they could not change their substance use, despite treatment, and a misconception that methadone would lead to addiction and worse withdrawal symptoms. A program factor included the requirement that patients visit the clinic daily to receive their dose. Lengthy distance to the clinic and restricted clinic hours were external factors that emerged. Patients reported using both heroin and methadone, and using a lower than prescribed dose of methadone in response to the factors they noted.
Conclusion: Implications of this study include educating patients and health care providers about methadone, and providing methadone outside of work hours to reduce barriers to access.