Mental problems among Vietnamese teenagers

According to a recent survey, 19,46% of Vietnamese teenagers are having mental problems. Meanwhile, the Vietnamese people and even the doctors have very little knowledge and experience about mental illness in young people.

Dr. Ngo Thanh Hoi – from Mai Huong Mental Clinic – tell us that in recent years, more and more problems about mental health, such as stress, anxiety, obsession, depression ..., have appeared in the high schools. According to Dr Hoi, young students are unconsciously put into situations that requires their independences and they also have to face a lot of negative effects of the rapidly developing economics, while they are not psychologically prepared.

In each school, there is always a ratio of students that are suffering mental illness. Accordingly, 15.94% of Vietnamese students have various types of mental disorders. Drug abuse is also increasing among teenagers and 10% of all suicide cases in Vietnam happen to people that are 10-17 years old.

A research with nearly 22000 teenagers in Hanoi shows that 3.7% of them have attention deficit disorder. A survey about mental health of teenagers in Hanoi by the SDQ program of WHO also shows that 19.46% of 1200 teenagers are having mental problems. There is no difference between genders, locations and family backgrounds.

The problems related to intelligence development and mental disorders such as anxiety, attention deficit disorder, bipolar disorder, autism, asperger, substance abuse, eating disorder ... are the proofs that many Vietnamese students are having mental problems.

The reasons for these problems are very complicated and some are still unknown to modern medical knowledge, according to Dr Hoi.

There is a theory about a sudden change in human physiology that plays an important role in the development of these mental problems. Medication and psychological remedies can abide the symptoms.

The mental disorders like anxiety, depression reduce dramatically the development and concentration of student. These mental illnesses also cause difficulty to their social life and can lead to serious mental diseases in the future. Getting diagnosed early will prevent efficiently the bad consequences in the future.

Over 50% of the population of Vietnam are teenagers. However, the knowledge of many people about how to take care of the mental health of teenagers is still very limited.

Online learning: a new education opportunity for Vietnamese

Starting with a project about the methods of distance learning sponsored by Texas University, USA, the University of Danang has been arranging dozen of courses for people in Vietnam, from the short-term courses that offer certifications to long-term courses that offer real degrees.

Among over 1200 students that are participating the English Translation course of the University of Danang, many are having strange professions. One is a pilot working for Vietnal Airlines, one is an engineer working on an oil rig, one is a salesman frequently traveling around the country..

Mr Thanh, a bus driver who has been dreaming about having a college degree before reaching 30, had to abort a distance college program because he could not attend some courses. In the past, when taking tourists to a new destination, he had a lot of leisure but did not know what to do besides hanging around in the internet cafe. Now he decides to join the online course.

With the login account he got after registering, he has finished the two first certifications of the course for a Bachelor degree by using his leisure when waiting for the tourists. With the help of the online learning software which is designed according to WebCT, the famous educating program that is being used by many top colleges in the US, Mr Th cannot only read the documents but also join the discussions with his classmates, asking the instructors about what he does not understand ... His learning materials even of many forms like text and multimedia. The social aspect of the class is not lost because of the distance between people.


And Mr Th is not a unique case. Many classmates of his are working for jobs that are quite time-unstable like taxi driver, travel agent, civil engineer .. But even people who have a stable job still feel they have more freedom when choosing the online learning program because they can just attend the classes whenever they want. Some students of the course say that they did not have to skip the classes when they went abroad for work because from the US, France or South Korea, they still can access the classes with ease. Another interesting thing is that there are even expatriates attending the program.

Although distance learning is quite new in Vietnam and to many people, this new method of learning is very strange, many students have become very interested. After finishing the course about website developing, Mr Phan Cong T from Danang has registered for another course about business administration skills. There are some cases that the students are spouses and siblings. According to these students, what made them decide to continuously join so many courses can be summed up by two words “efficient and convenient”.