Abstract
This Research and Development research focused on developing the model of Participation Health Public Policy for the Elderly Care Fund in the community at Northeastern of Thailand (E – San) by community participation process. Data were collected by using both qualitative and quantitative methods including survey, observation, in-depth interview, focus group discussion, and documentation reviews. The participants consisted of 11,109 elders, 660 elderly caregivers, 15 elderly care managers, 264 involved people, and 28 observation participants. Data were collected from October 2016 to November 2017 and were analyzed by using content analysis, percentage distribution, 95%CI, and McNemar Test. The study found that: 1) the situation of long-term dependency care needs of in the elders had a prevalence of dependence in the elders 14.14% (95% CI 13.5 - 14.8), with dementia 15.20%. (95% CI 14.6 - 15.9). Only 43% of dependent elders had accessed to long-term care benefits which was followed the long-term care fund policy in the pilot area. The major obstacles were the problem of inadequate provision of personnel to local government organizations and the burden of care manager. 2) The process of driving long-term care policy into public policy to create public participation in elderly care consisted of 3 components: community involvement, creating knowledge for public policy of long term care, and integrating with the policy-making agency in the area that could lead to the public policy to practice in the area. 3) The community participation increased in every componence. This enabled the long-term care fund to be implemented and encouraged the elders with dependency be accessed to long-term care services increased significantly (p-value <.001). The quality of life of caregivers was also improved significantly (p-value <.001). However, it was found the level of disability was no statistically significant difference in the elderly who received care services under long-term care fund before and after the study. Long-term dependence is a problem and long-term care needs in the elders. Health Public Policy of the long-term care for the elderly is a social movement for the cooperation of network partners, especially local governments and primary health care, to drive important government policies, that can lead to practice in the area. This will lead to the development of long-term care for the elders in the community to support the elderly society in the future.
