Excellent Health Home Model for Dependent Patients

Abstract

This participatory action research aimed to (1) investigate analytical problems of dependent patients in depth (2) to develop excellent health home model for dependent patients (3) to summarize the appropriate model for dependent patients. The target participants were those who live in a sub district of Ratchaburi Province. Participants of the study were comprised 21 caregivers, 21 dependent patients, 15 village public health volunteers, and 10 service providers in this multidisciplinary study. Data were collated by using both qualitative and quantitative methods. The research instruments consisted of the following: a health screening form, the Barthel index [BI], and a client satisfaction form. Quantitative data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics, while qualitative data was analyzed by content analysis. The study was divided into 4 phases: phase 1-Pre-research and analysis of the problem situations. Phase 2–Research phase, which includes development of the dependent patients’ model, training workshops, home visits, and assessments. Phase 3-The monitoring phase, which includes repeat home visits, reassessment, and phase 4-Evaluation phase, which includes summarizing the information and conducting a conference to share and extend knowledge from this information. The results revealed the following: (1) based on a deep analysis of the situation of the dependent patients at their homes, it showed they had lack of knowledge about health literacy at high level. The ADL--Activity Daily Living of dependent patients had a high prevalence and can have direct effect on the psychology of caregivers (2) all stakeholders in the setting of this study including government leaders, health professionals, public health volunteers, and the private sector in the area were seen the health problems and (3) the results of the evaluation of the model by comparing it with the satisfaction of clients reported a high satisfaction at p<.05. Moreover, when considering the effect of increasing stakeholder’s awareness of the dependent patients’ problems, there were perceived long term concerns to build the continuous care systems or model of care for dependent patients. The results of this study can be used as planning information and for the development of an “excellent happy home ward” for dependent patients in other areas.