Process and Factors Related to Local Collaboration in Long-term Elderly Care

Abstract

The objectives of this research were to study the process of local collaboration in implementing the long-term elderly care (LTC) and to analyze factors related to that collaborative process. It used as a mixed method research. Qualitative data were collected from in-depth interviews from 20 members of District Health Board (DHB) in 4 regions, which carried out LTC activities and quantitative data were collected by questionnaires from 408 members of DHB. Qualitative data were analyzed with content analysis and quantitative data were analyzed with descriptive and inferential statistics. The results showed that local collaboration for LTC was realized through the DHB, which was formed by working together between the public, private and people sectors in the area. They play an important role in ensuring the quality of life for the elderly by providing LTC services covering health, social and wellbeing. The operation process of DHB consists of selecting stakeholders to join the collaborative group, meetings for situation analysis, selecting issues according to problems, planning operations, sharing mission, implementing LTC as planned, and monitoring results. When analyzing correlated factors, it was found that regulation, collective leadership, history, resources, and motivation had a high correlation to the collaborative process in the implementation of LTC with statistical significance (r=0.858–0.904, p-value<0.05). Therefore, these factors should be promoted in order to create a sustainable collaborative process at the district level.