The Policy Implementation on Long-term Health Care for the Elderly with Dependency in Practice in Local Administrative Organizations of Phichit Province

Abstract

          The objectives of this research were 1) to study the problems of the Policy Implementation on Long-term Health Care for the Elderly with Dependency in Practice, 2) to study factors that affected the efficacy of the Policy Implementation on Long-term Health Care for the Elderly with Dependency in Practice and 3) to study the effectiveness of the Policy Implementation on Long-term Health Care for the Elderly with Dependency in Practice.  It is a mixed method : a quantitative and qualitative study.  The samples were 400 people Elderly men and women aged 60 years and over. who live in the local government organization of Phichit Province with dependency. using Yamane’s formula. The data were collected by employing questionnaires and analyzed by using percentage, frequency, standard deviation, and Stepwise regression analysis. In terms of qualitative study, the 30 informants were selected purposively for the interview and then content analysis was applied. The findings were found that :  
          1) The problems of the Policy Implementation on Long-term Health Care for the Elderly with Dependency in Practice in 3 aspects as follows: 1) the operation system, some of the local administrative organizations in Phichit province did not have adequate Care Managers (CM) and Care Givers (CG), lacking direct experience in health care personnel, multi-stage operation system, unclear policy, and handbook plan, slow and inadequate budget, 2) database system was still slow due to separated operation, lack of integration, 3) in terms of cooperation, they still lacked the coordination.
          2) factors that affected the Policy Implementation on Long-term Health Care for the Elderly with Dependency in Practice, there were 7 factors as follows: factors affected the effectiveness of the Policy Implementation on Long-term Health Care for the Elderly with Dependency into Practice including personnel, budget, materials, administration, and management, operation time, technology, and environment significantly different at .05 with the coefficient regression of .667, .589, .441, .294, .276, .266, and .206 respectively.  The Adjusted R Square = .777 or 77.70 percent.
          3) The effectiveness of the Policy Implementation on Long-term Health Care for the Elderly with Dependency in Practice, the elderly with dependency have received full health care such as gold card rights, government official reimbursement rights, and social security rights.