Characteristics of Agencies Providing Support Services for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders in Vietnam.

As in virtually all countries, in Vietnam there has been a general trend towards apparent increased rates of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). To address the needs of families and children with ASD, many agencies providing support services have been opened throughout Vietnam over the last two decades. Although agencies in general appear to strive to provide good quality service, the actual quality of operations is unknown. The present article collected and analyzed secondary data from 68 agencies across Vietnam from different information sources, using the nine criteria published by Tran, Weiss, and Pham (in press) [1] and Nguyen, Hoang, Nguyen, Pham, and Tran (2017) [2] to evaluate agency quality. Results of this review suggest that a significant number of centers do not have appropriate legal status, are not following basic ethical standards, are using non-evidence based intervention methods, and are unclear in regards to the intervention procedures or intervention plans they use. Although the current study has a number of limitations, it provides important initial information regarding the current status of ASD services in Vietnam.