Dr. Than Thai Phong is the Vice Chief of the Community Mental Health Unit, Vietnam National Psychiatric Hospital. He is currently undertaking a PhD in Viet Nam and is involved in a national mental health reform program to establish an integrative model of mental health care in Vietnam. In particular, he has been developing a pilot project to establish basic mental health care accessed from Government run primary health care centres. The key challenges for his work are lack of financial resources, mental health workforce and community support. Skilled workers and education are needed especially to develop family and patient support to help care for seriously mentally ill patients in the community.
The Australian Leadership Award Fellowship allowed Dr. Than to attend an intensive course Essentials of Mental Health Research through the University of Melbourne and to consult with Australian researchers, consultants and mental health professionals involved in designing and implementing national population health studies.