The Development of Health Organizational Network for Strengthening of Elderly Capacity in Plai Choom Pol Sub-district, Muaeng District, Phitsanulok Province

Abstract

The research “Development of Health Organization Network for Strengthening of Elderly Capacity in Plai Choom Pol Sub-district, Muaeng District, Phitsanulok Province” aimed to: 1) Study problems and obstacles of health organization network operation with elders and 2) Design activities to support elders’ potentiality action research with qualitative approach was used to collect data including focus group discussions and interviews. Semi-structure interview guideline was also employed during the process of data gathering. Moreover, content analysis was used to interpret the data. The main results found that obstacles of health organization network were transportation the elders, their working condition, and health problems of elders. These might result in the lack of participation at home-ridden elders and the lack of participation of elders in designing activities based on their needs. The activities actually cover only 7 percent of total elder population in Plai Choom Pol sub-district. However, health organization network had been working to design the total 30 activities in order to develop elders’ capacity covering all aspects including physical, psychological, social, spiritual, economical and wisdom, environmental and technological aspects with the collaboration both internal and external organizations. Eventually, the study suggested that the activities should be designed based on the needs of elders and the process of participation in community, for example communication and technological skills activities and local wisdom identity exploration activities to develop the community sustainably.