Participation of Elderly Long-term Care Network in Mueang District, Lamphun Province

Abstract

This mixed method study aimed to investigate participation in an elderly long-term care network in Mueang district, Lamphun province during January to March 2018. The quantitative data was purposively collected from 200 people who are involved with long-term care network of elderly in 15 subdistricts in Mueang district, Lamphun province. The questionnaire was developed from a literature review. It comprised four perspectives of participation process which included planning, implementation, monitoring and improvement. Descriptive statistics, such as percentage, mean and standard deviation were used to analyze the results. The results from the quantitative data were categorized 15 subdistricts into 3 groups by the year of involvement in long-term care of elderly. The highest and lowest average total mean in each group, 6 subdistricts, were selected to continuously collect data for qualitative method. Twenty-four key informants from 6 subdistricts was purposively interviewed by using the semi-structured interview form. The qualitative data was analyzed by using content analysis.

            The quantitative results showed that in the 1^st group, that involved with long-term care network of elderly since 2016, Rimping subdistrict, had the highest average total mean (89.6+0.63) while the lowest average total mean (78.5+0.31) was Nai Mueang subdistrict. In the 2^nd group, that involved with long-term care network of elderly since 2017, Ban Pan subdistrict had the highest average total mean (85.9+0.66) while Mueang Jee subdistrict had the lowest average total mean (75.3+0.49). The 3^rd group, that involved with long-term care network of elderly since 2018, the highest average total mean (84.8+0.93) was Nong Chang Khuen subdistrict while the lowest average total mean (66.9+0.81) was Nong Narm subdistrict.

            The qualitative results showed that in planning process, included with the administration of budget, human resources, and materials, the local government organization had the most important role in the management. The second role was the elderly club members and the subdistrict health promoting hospitals. In implementation process, many systems emerged such as health information sharing system, referral system, home visit system by multidisciplinary professions, including activities both in elderly clubs and schools for elderly. In monitoring process, the staff conference was set for following and monitoring through the evaluation project for long-term care network of elderly. In improvement process, community participation was created in order to conclude and improve projects and activities as mentioned above according to different contexts.