Nurse’s Roles for Participation in Age-friendly Community Development

Abstract

Thailand has entered ageing society since 2005 which is rapidly increasing in the elderly. Although, Thailand has worked on the elderly under a National Plan on the Elderly since 2002, there is no identical direction and no integration among the related agencies. Therefore, in 2018, Thailand has driving national agenda regarding ageing society using age-friendly community concepts of WHO for developing the quality of life of the elderly as well as integrative plans among ministries such as the Ministry of Public Health and the Ministry of Interior. For the Ministry of Public Health, the district health promoting hospitals are the local organizations and nurses play a major role in responsibility for health care among the elderly. As we known, health is a basic important component of quality of life development among the elderly according to the concepts of an age-friendly community. Therefore, nurses should understand their roles for participation in age-friendly community development in order to increase an effective collaboration with a multidisciplinary team, community, as well as government and private organizations for age-friendly community development. There are seven nurse’s roles for participation in age-friendly community development as follows: a holistic caregiver, a decision maker, an expert, a responsible friend, a care plan counselor, a team player, and a researcher.