Police from Cambodia and Vietnam study harm reduction and public health leadership in Australia

In August 2013, 11 police from Cambodia and Vietnam traveled to Australia to undertake public health leadership training. The subject of the three week course was ‘Police as Collaborative Leaders in the HIV Response’, and provided an opportunity for aspiring leaders and trainers within policing institutions in Vietnam and Cambodia to build their own, and, by extension, their respective police forces’, capacity to work collaboratively to respond to HIV among Key Affected Populations.

 Senior police delegates from Cambodia included:

• Mr Thong Sokunthea, Director of Research and Control, National Authority for Combating Drugs
• Mr Phorn Boramy, Police Major General, National Authority for Combating Drugs
• Mr Hy Someth, Chief of Health Office and HIV/AIDS Programme, Ministry of Interior and Department of Health
• Mr Leng Bunna, Deputy Director of Anti-drug Department, Cambodian National Police
• Mr Neak Yuthea, Director, Department of Legislation, Education and Rehabilitation, National Authority for Combating Drugs

Delegates from Vietnam were all from the People’s Police Academy in Hanoi.

• Mr Lam Tien Dung, Police Lieutenant Colonel, Senior Lecturer, Department of Crime Prevention and Investigation
• Mr Le Quoc Huy, Police Major, Vice-Dean of Forensic Science Faculty
• Ms Do Thi Thu, Lecturer
• Mr Le Hong Hai, Police Captain, Deputy Director of Scientific Information and Academic Material Center
• Ms Truong Thuc Anh, Senior Lecturer
• Ms Le Thi Thu Thuy, Lecturer

The course, hosted by LEAHN and the Nossal Institute for Global Health, The University of Melbourne, included practical sessions such as talks from people providing pharmacy based methadone, community harm reduction services (including Sydney’s safe injecting facility), the perspectives of sex worker coalitions and practical examples of how Victoria and New South Wales police interact with vulnerable populations. 

A key component of the training was provided by the Australian Institute for Police Management (AIPM) in Sydney – Australia’s premier senior police management training school. The AIPM delivered a specific package of training designed to explore police leadership in the Asian context and challenged the participants to think about their role as police leaders in HIV from both a theoretical and practical basis. 

As a result of lessons learned in the training, police delegates from both Vietnam and Cambodia held initial consultations with civil society and NGOs working on HIV to discuss how partnerships in the enabling environment can be enhanced. Implementing a harm reduction curriculum in Vietnam’s People’s Police Academy is also underway.

Upon completing the study tour, representatives from Vietnam and Cambodia prepared and delivered presentations about police leadership in the HIV response at the 11th International Congress on AIDS in the Asia-Pacific held in Bangkok in November 2013.

Read a summary of the LEAHN ICAAP satellite session and access the police PowerPoint presentations here.

The study tour was supported by the Australia Awards Fellowships program, AusAID.