A one-stop model for women and children located at Hùng Vương Hospital in HCM City opened on Friday. — VNA/VNS Photo Thanh Vũ

HCM CITY — Instead of having to go to many places to seek support, women and children who are victims of violence can now go to a one-stop model in HCM City.

Located at Hùng Vương Hospital, the centre offers medical care and psychological and legal counselling.

The model, the first of its kind, opened on Friday and will be piloted from now to 2026.

It will perform functions of receiving, screening, treating, consulting, and providing on-site services to patients who are women and children subject to violence and sexual abuse.

If an emergency shelter is needed, social workers of Hùng Vương Hospital will refer victims to the City Centre for Social Work - Education and Vocational Training for Youth, located at 14 Nguyễn Văn Bảo street, Ward 4, Gò Vấp District, for care, therapeutic intervention and access to other essential services on demand.

According to Lê Văn Thịnh, Director of the municipal Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, the pilot implementation of the one-stop model at a health facility is an unprecedented solution in Việt Nam.

Experience in responding to gender-based violence shows that health facilities are often the first places to which patients of different age groups, professions and backgrounds visit.

The one-stop shop model is a safe destination, a place to intervene, help, and provide essential closed and suitable service packages for each victim in the area.

The National Survey on Violence against Women in Việt Nam in 2019 shows that nearly two out of three women (nearly 63 per cent) experience one or more forms of physical, sexual, emotional, and economic violence as well as controlling behaviours caused by their husbands or intimate partners in their lifetime.

However, 90 per cent of the women who experience sexual and/or physical violence perpetrated by their husbands do not seek any assistance from the authorities.

Elisa Fernandez Saenz, UN Women Representative in Việt Nam, said that the launch of the model was a result of the tireless efforts of stakeholders in HCM City during the past few years, aiming to provide a coordinated multi-sectoral essential service for women and children subject to violence by meeting their aspirations and needs.

UN Women was committed to continuing to join hands with the city in the coming time to make the model pilot a success, she said, expecting this model to serve as a basis for its duplication nationwide. — VNS