The Development of Family and Community Health Leaders for the Elderly with Chronic Illness and Bedridden Care

Abstract

This action research was aimed to study the situation, develop family and community care for the elderly with chronic illness and bedridden and its results in 3 sub- districts of the Maueng district, Udonthani province. The study was conducted from June 2021 through May 2022. The sample included 57 key informants (30 family leaders and 27 community leaders) and 30 secondary informants who were elderly with chronic illness and were bedridden for a total of 87 selected by purposive sampling. The process consisted of 4 stages; planning, development process, observation and reflection. Data was collected using questionnaire, in-depth interviews, group discussions, operation meetings, and observation. Descriptive statistics, paired T -test and content analysis were used in this study.

       The results situation showed 23.33% of the elderly had joints stiffness and 13.33% had pressure sores. Family caregivers had inadequate of knowledge, essential skills and equipment, had less support from family, and were in an improper environment. Community care provided by local caregivers, healthcare providers, village health volunteers and community leaders the activities were complicated. The families had less self-reliance and tended to depend on the community’s caregivers.  The process development of family health leader included assessment, perform operational meeting, practice and home visit. For community health leader development included the problems analysis, project writing, developed a community commitment and home visit.  After they attended the process, there was an increase in the mean scores relating to knowledge of the family health leaders (pre- test = 20.00±0.71, post test = 26.53±1.41) and increase skill of elderly care (pre-test = 25.67±0.41, post test = 32.80±0.24) which showed to be statistically significant (p‹ 0.01).  The elderly had received better care, furthermore, a community commitment and supporting network which supported the elderly with chronic illness and bedridden care was considered.

          From the results it is suggested that the related agencies should continue program development, knowledge sharing among the families, community health leaders, multidisciplinary team and promoting community volunteers for elderly care.