Hongkham Xayavong has been appointed to Department of Coordination and Research – Information Management, Lao Tropical and Public Health Institute since 2017. She is assigned to perform the tasks of information technology communication centered in health research, database development, graphic design, and website development. She also belongs to the secretariate of National Ethic Committee for Health Research (NECHR) in Lao PDR.  In addition, she spent several years working in data manager, data collector and developing tools involved in several public health research studies related to: community health, nutrition, maternal, reproductive, child and newborn health, and adolescents’ health. Hongkham receipt the Research Seed Grant from the Southeast Asia Bioethics Network which title “Making Difficult Decisions: Ethical Challenges in Treatment for People with Severe Mental Health Illness in Lao PDR”. This proposed research aim to explore how decisions are made about starting, continuing, or stopping treatment for people with severe mental illness in Lao PDR. It focuses on situations where families and health workers must make difficult choices–especially when there is not enough money, when treatment is not trusted, or when hospitals do not have space to keep patients. The study will look at real-life examples and bring attention to ethical problems, such as who has the right to decide, when patients cannot decide for themselves, and what happens when there are no good options. Findings will offer new understanding that can help improve mental health care in low-resource settings like Lao PDR. 

Project Title: Making Difficult Decisions: Ethical Challenges in Treatment for People with Severe Mental Health Illness in Lao PDR