A Day of Professional Awakenings

In a nutshell, here was our day. I will add more later!

WOW! What an amazing day! Life changing! We started the day by visiting the Rehabilitation Hospital here in Ho Chi Minh. The Rehab center was opened in 1966 during the Viet Nam war. We met with 5 doctors, learned about thier facility and their needs. While at the hospital Dr. Carol Koch presented on Childhood Apraxia of Speech which was then translated into Vietnamese. The center provides orthopedic operations, limb rehabilitation, and prosthesis for amputees. The doctors were so excited we were there and asked us to please come back to their rehab center.

Our second stop was at a Children's Hospital. The hospital provides services to 5000 inpatients a year and 1, 400,000 outpatients per year. We met with a pediatrician, Dr. Pham Ngoc Thanh and a PT who have invended speech therapy in Viet Nam, through self study. They did not have any SLP's on staff. We were able to see the facility, visit the daycare for disabilities, and the early intervention/pshchology/speech therapy department.

Our third and final stop was at the National College of Education in HCMC. We met with the Principal and the teaching staff. They are very interested in starting a program for education in Speech Pathology. They currently provide training for teachers in the areas of visual, hearing and intelligence impaired children.

We are off this morning for a day cultural day. I will write more in this post later!