The Study of the Health Care Service Networking for the Home-Bound Elders and Bed-Bound Elders: Hong Ha Health Promotion Hospital, Maetha District, Lampang Province

Abstract

This survey research aimed to study a health care service networking for elderly people in home-bound and bed-bound groups while the involvement of community parties. Involved persons and parties were 62 elderly people with dependency and 62 relative caregivers of both home-bound and bed-bound, 15 caregivers of dependent older people in the community, and 3 representatives from the main community parties. Research tools used for data collection covered both quantitative and qualitative methods. Frequency, percentage, mean, and standard deviation were applied to analyze quantitative data while content analysis was for qualitative.

           The results showed that the health care service networking for the elderly, home-bound and bed-bound groups in the responsible area of Hong Ha Health Promotion Hospital was summarized by a linkage of 5 components which are (1) assessing the condition of the elderly with dependency and the potential of the caregivers, (2) caring for the elderly with dependency by the community, (3) health service system, continuous care system and management information system & technology, (4) the policy formulation, the project plan and the budget from Nam Cho Sub-district Municipality, and (5) the care of the elderly with dependency from other related organizations. The results of this study suggested that health care system in the community should respond to the needs of dependent elderly people and relative caregivers, taking into account on the differences of individuals. In addition, policy to integrate long-term care for elderly in each community should be defined to reduce the duplication of work and the budget used by each agency in a particular area.