Child Abuse and Neglect Worldwide [3 volumes] by Jon R. Conte Ph.D

Author:Jon R. Conte Ph.D.
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: ABC-CLIO
Published: 2014-06-15T00:00:00+00:00

CAPACITY-BUILDING NEEDS

Clearly, all three countries have made strides in the past decade toward developing services and taken steps towards a child protection system. However, significant work remains ahead to establish and maintain a system of care that prevents and treats child maltreatment. A critical issue hampering this development is a global problem of human resources and the challenge of having sufficient numbers of qualified professionals to implement effective and efficient procedures for child protection.

Research was conducted in Vietnam (Hugman, 2005) to examine the different needs for social workers in various sectors. Child protection was the most needy sector, requiring more social workers, as well as more professional training for these workers. In the past decade, 30 universities and colleges have created social work programs responsible for training 1,500 graduates a year (UNICEF, 2007). Nguyen notes that this augments a workforce of approximately 15,000 individuals who are labeled “social workers,” though the vast majority of these individuals do not have degrees (as cited in Stevens, Taylor, & Lan, 2011). In 2010, UNICEF lobbied the government to mobilize U.S. $120 million to implement a long-term national program to develop social work as a profession. The Vietnamese government officially classified the job as a profession and allocated money for training social workers and creating a network of social services. This effort is supporting university curriculum development, job codes, and professional standards. The goal is to produce 65,000 social workers by 2020.

There remain only two university social work degree programs in Thailand, one at Thammasat University, a government institution established in 1954, and another at the private Hua Chiew Chalermprakiat University, which opened in 1990. These two institutions are responsible for graduating approximately 400 bachelor’s degrees, 100 master’s degrees, and 2–3 doctoral candidates annually. Another government institution, Chiang Mai University, offers a bachelor’s degree in sociology and anthropology, which includes a related program of study in social work and social development. Thailand and its neighbors all face the issue of finding appropriate field learning sites to support the applied component of a social work program. With so few professionally trained social workers, most field supervisors are individuals who are managers of agencies, or people who are interested in social work and available. Nontapatamadul’s 2008 estimates account for approximately 1,600 social workers within ministerial and local administrative positions, and another 200 within NGOs (as cited in Mongkolnchaiarunya, 2009).

In Cambodia, the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport approved the first degree program in the country in 2008 at the Royal University of Phnom Penh. The first enrolled cohort of 22 students graduated in the summer of 2012. The government recently approved the development of the National Institute of Social Affairs, which will combine a number of disparate training programs, including an existing technical training program on prosthetics and orthotics, vocational training for persons with disabilities, and bachelor’s and associate’s social work degrees. At present, none of the upper administrators within the Ministry of Social Affairs have a degree from a social science or allied program. One

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