SUMMARY - PSYCHOLOGY PROFESSIONAL DELEGATION TO VIETNAM AND CAMBODIA
In Spring of this year I received an invitation to be part of a Psychology Professional Delegation to Vietnam and Cambodia. This delegation was organized as part of People to People Abassador Programs. People to People is a nonpolitical, private sector organization founded by President Eisenhower in 1956. The People to People Professional Ambassador Program is designed as a means of developing high level professional exchanges, dialogue, and understanding with counterparts in other nations. Delegates are invited to participate based upon recommendation from professional peers, and experience and field of study.
I have always been fascinated by other cultures (I started undergraduate training with a major in Anthropology), I love to travel, and I enjoy my work as a clinical psychologist, so with my wife's blessing I quickly accepted the invitation. The delegation was led by Dr. Norine Johnson, past president of the American Psychological Association. Other delegates represented a broad and distinguished cross-section of Psychologists, including Dr. Joseph Mattarazzo, another past APA president, clinical psychologists in public and private practice, university professors, etc. My room-mate for the trip, Dr. David Chiampi, works as a consultant to the Department of Homeland Security, FEMA, and other government agencies, and is past President of the New York State Psychological Association.
The Psychology Professional Delegation left Los Angeles on November 7, 2006 and arrived in Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon, Vietnam on November 9 after crossing the International Dateline. We spent three days in Vietnam engaged in professional and cultural exchanges, including meeting faculty and students at Vietnam National University, meeting with staff at Ho Chi Minh City Mental Health Hospital, and touring the Mekong Delta by boat and foot. On November 12 we flew to Siem Reap, Cambodia where we spent two and a half days exploring several temple complexes built between the 9th and 12th centuries, including Angkor Wat which is being considered as one of the Wonders of the World. On November 14 we flew to Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, where we spent two and a half days in professional and cultural exchanges. Professional meetings in Phnom Penh included meeting faculty and students at the Royal University of Phnom Penh Department of Psychology, meeting with staff and families at the Cambodian Women's Crisis Center, and meeting with staff at the Mental Health Services Department of Khmer-Soviet Friendship Hospital. Cultural activities included visits to the Tuol Sleng Security Prison (S-21), a detention and torture center of the Khmer Rouge, and to the Choeung Ek Killing Fields. We departed for the States on November 17.
There were many exciting, poignant, and memorable experiences on this trip. The professional presentations and discussion were informative and interesting. At the hospital in Vietnam the strict adherence to medication as the only useful approach to treating mental illness contrasted with the Cambodian acknowledgment of traditional healing and spiritual beliefs as valuable adjuncts to medication. Psychiatrists in both countries were very well-informed about current medications. However, resources in both countries for treating mental illness were virtually nonexistent. Structured continuity of care or support services such as case management, counseling, day support, or transitional living apartments are difficult to develop when there are so few trained profesisonals to serve millions of people. Treatment of mental illness primarily involves stabilizing the person on medication and then sending the patient back to his or her community.
The Cambodia Women's Crisis Center (CWCC) was surprising and impressive. Not surprisingly, resources for the CWCC are extremely limited, but the level of knowledge, sophisitication, and caring in reference to gender-based violence, including domestic violence, rape, and sex trafficking was comparable to similar organizations in the States. Laminated information cards, posters, and brochures providing information about gender-based violence and resources were widely available.The shelter we visited included a classroom for the children, training in English language and viable trades for the women, and a communal atmosphere of support and cohesiveness.
The most poignant part of the trip for me was the visit to Tuol Sleng prison (Referred to as Security Office 21 or S-21) and the Killing Fields. During the Khmer Rouge reign from 1975 to 1979 approximately 25% of the population of Cambodia died through execution or starvation . Any educated person was executed, including teachers, doctors, professionals, or people who knew a second language. All residents of the capital city of Phnom Penh were driven out of the city so that the entire city became a ghost town. The Khmer Rouge recruits were mostly age 16 and under, and these children were often involved in the torture and execution of their fellow Cambodians. Tuol Sleng,a high school converted to a torture and interrogation center, included room after room with photographs of more than 17,000 men, women, and children who were tortured in the facility, along with the cells, torture rooms, and torture instruments. However, I cannot find words to describe the feelings experienced while walking the Choeung Ek Killing Fields. Visitors are greeted by the sight of a "memorial charnel house", a building at least three stories high that is filled floor to ceiling with skulls of victims exhumed from mass graves. From there, visitors pass the mass graves where almost 9000 bodies have been exhumed. 43 mass graves are still untouched, human bones and decaying clothing are evident along the walking paths, and discoloration is still present on a tree where babies heads were bashed. Everything was quiet. The little conversation that occurred was hushed and solemn, people drifted slowly along the walking paths in stunned horror, and when meeting another person's eyes it was not unusual to see tears streaming or subdued sobbing, but no sounds. Returning to the city where people were laughing, playing, and going about their daily hustle and bustle was like breaking a spell and gradually returning to the real world.
The most rewarding and interesting part of the trip for me was my interaction with the Vietnamese and Cambodian people we met throughout the trip. The people I met were uniformly friendly and gracious. A young man named Om, enjoying the afternoon with his wife and new baby on the steps in an isolated part of Angkor Wat, invited me to join them for conversation and some of the wild cherries they were enjoying for lunch. Students at the universities in Ho Chi Minh City and Phnom Penh were thrilled to meet and talk with us, and were overjoyed to exchange mailing addresses and e-mail addresses for future correspondence. Even the swarms of vendor children seemed to relish the opportunity to talk and joke after getting past their hard sell; one little girl sheepishly asked if I would check her English homework when the other children had drifted off to engage other visitors . The cities were vibrant and alive, and the rural areas tended to be placid and peaceful, but I was continually amazed at the resilience and cheerfulness of the people I met.
One final treasure I garnered from the trip were the friendships and shared experiences with the other delegates. All of the delegates got along well with one another, but not surprisingly (I am a psychologist, after all) people gradually gravitated toward others with whom they really connected. I lucked out with my room-mate, and thoroughly enjoyed hanging out with him, Dr.Ellen Faryna, Dr. Mary Crozier (an old acquaintance from Colonial CSB now living in Alberta), Dr. Regina Gerstman, and others. Some of us have already made plans to get together in the coming months to continue the friendships and shared experiences. Personally and professionally, this trip far exceeded my expectations.
