Development of Village Health Volunteer to Expert in Community Base Treatment and Rehabilitation, Satuek District, Buriram Province

Abstract

Background: The drug problem is an important issue affecting health, society, and the economy. Moreover, it impacts drug addicts, families, and communities. he practitioners should know and understand the drug rehabilitation methods for drug addicts.
Objective: Therefore, this study aimed to develop the public health volunteers of the village who are specialists in the rehabilitation of drug addicts in the community and to develop the cooperative network of the community in order to maintain the period of rehabilitation to be complete in 90 days.
Methods: This study was action research, studying 30 public health volunteers of the village in Satuek District. These volunteers were improved to be specialists by training with 4 hours of theoretical sessions. They must pass the assessment criteria of knowledge of over 80 percent and perform 12 activities in practice in the community in accordance with the rehabilitation program for drug addicts in the community performed by the public health volunteers of the village, The expertise level was determined as 12 activities operation with a rehabilitation rate of 90 days or more than 80 percent. The target group was drug users in the community who passed the village community voluntarily to undergo rehabilitation in the community. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, including numbers, percentages, means, and standard deviations.
Results: According to the study, it was found that samples, who are 30 public health volunteers in the village, had an average age of 48 years old; 36.6 percent of them were male, and 63.4 percent of them were female. Furthermore, the expertise level was having scores before training an average of 49.6 percent, and after training theoretical sessions an average of 88.9 percent and performed 12 activities in accordance with the rehabilitation program for drug addicts in the community at 100 percent. In this study, 18 participants used amphetamine at most. Moreover, it was found that 88 percent of them had never been in a rehabilitation program before.
Conclusions: According to the performance of all 12 activities under the rehabilitation program for drug addicts in the community by the public health volunteers in the community, it was found that there was a network of community participation and drug users who were willing to participate had the rehabilitation rate at 90 days or 84.5 percent. In addition, it was found that the high scores in the theoretical sessions were associated with the high rehabilitation rate of 90 days but without statistical significance p = 0.69). Also, the relationship between the public health volunteers of the village who had experience being in charge of the drug addicts in the community and the rehabilitation rate at 90 days was found to be high but without statistical significance (p = 0.66).