The Faculty of Social Administration, Thammasat University has announced on its Facebook page that TU students, representatives from civil society organizations, including volunteers and anyone interested in the subject of geriatric care and nursing homes in terms of COVID-19 prevention in Thailand and Japan are cordially invited to attend an online seminar about Lessons on Management from the COVID-19 Pandemic.
The seminar will be held on Wednesday, 17 June 2020 from 2pm to 5:30pm on Zoom.
Giving the opening speech will be Professor Rapeepan Kumhom, Ph.D., Dean of the Faculty of Social Administration, Thammasat University.
The noun geriatrics refers to old persons, especially those receiving special care. The word geriatrics is of relatively recent origin, first used in the 1920s and derived from Greek words meaning old age and doctoring. A corresponding term, paediatrics, means the care of children.
The TU Library collection contains many volumes about geriatric care, as students at the Faculty of Allied Health Sciences, Thammasat University know.
As the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the United States of America and other authoritative websites explain, geriatric care is a significant challenge in any pandemic, especially the current one.
The Faculty of Social Administration, Thammasat University has already been active in digitizing social work under the current challenge from the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Bangkok Post reported earlier this month that online support is being organized to curb the social stigma of COVID-19 infection:
With the physical distancing policy in place, social workers are using a mobile app to follow up on patients who have recovered from Covid-19 to help them overcome social stigma and reintegrate in their communities, a forum was told yesterday.
The Kingdom has recorded 3,083 accumulated cases of Covid-19 so far and 2,960 have recovered from the disease.
Thammasat University, the Thai Health Promotion Foundation and other organisations are collaborating on a one-year project to digitise social work amid Covid-19. They launched the project yesterday at the university’s Tha Phra Chan campus.
Professor Rapeepan Kumhom, the dean of Thammasat University’s Faculty of Social Administration, told attendees at the forum yesterday that there have been cases of discrimination against coronavirus patients.
“Some condo owners asked [the patients] to leave because other tenants did not want to live with them. It is discrimination,” she said.
“Some social workers cannot follow up on these cases,” Prof Rapeepan added. “Therefore, we kicked off [the online support] programme to support community workers and those affected by the coronavirus crisis.”
She said the initiative aims to train 200 volunteer caregivers to provide counselling and therapy during weekends to monitor and support about 1,600 cases in Bangkok and adjacent provinces.
“Many of the caregivers in the deep South and remote areas are registering for our online course,” Prof Rapeepan said.
“Last week, a nun in Italy joined the empowering counselling class.”
Caregivers for the initiative must be trained and certified. Consultation services are done through the telemedicine app “Clicknic”…
Ajarn Rapeepan has also coauthored with Ajarn Lek Sombat, also of the Faculty of Social Administration, Thammasat University, an article about caring for old people, Alternative Social Welfare Model for Older Persons: Decreasing Social Inequality.
It was published last year in the Journal of Thai Interdisciplinary Research.
The article’s abstract reads as follows:
Report in Thailand indicates that the country ranks at the 61st from 149 countries in Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Thailand receives 62.2 points out of 100. Only for SDG No. 1, the country receives an overall good score in terms of reducing poverty. As for SDG No. 10, reduction in inequality is one of four objectives that the Thai government intends to hasten. The Thai government intends to reduce inequality in Aged society by 2021. The government has adopted a 20-year National Strategy and integrated the objective as a part of the 12th National Economic and Social Development Plan. It also has a National Plan for the Older Persons (2002-2021) as a measure for implementation. In the plan, there are 4 main principles which are social service, social insurance, social assistance and social partnership. The government focuses on stakeholder and increased roles of private sector, community organizations, local organizations, and organizations that work with the older persons in organizing welfare. There are three dimensions under the inequality situation of welfare in Thailand. These include economic dimension, welfare dimension, and human dignity dimension. The findings of the study on welfare model for the older persons vary according to local context. New findings reveal five Models (1) Kohka Welfare model (2) Partnership welfare model (3) group welfare by Elder Organization model (4) Local and Cultural Welfare model (5) ELDERFARE model. Recommendations in managing welfare and reducing inequalities in the older persons’ society include review of national health policy and access to universal insurance. Differentiation exists between social insurance and public officers as well as state enterprises’ access to welfare. Employment opportunities should be increased for older persons by extending the hiring years from 60 to 65 years. Support should be given for the older persons to plan their finance. Lastly, support for stakeholder participation in welfare should increase for the older persons in order to reduce the different dimensions of inequality.
Among other distinguished participants in the 17 June seminar are Mr. Rangsan Nanthakawong, Mayor of Buengyitho Municipality, Associate Professor Wannalak Miankerd of the Faculty of Social Administration, Thammasat University and experts from Japan, including Mr. Akio Koide of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), chief advisor for the Project on Seamless Health and Social Services Provision for Elderly Persons.
Last year, Ajarn Wannalak coauthored an article published in the Journal of Thai Interdisciplinary Research. It was entitled, Encouraging the Development and Monitoring of Elderly School Operations.
Its abstract:
This research aimed to (1) to promote the establishment of an elderly school in the operation area (2) to monitor the operation, suggestion and support the establishment of an elderly school (3) to present the performance of an elderly school (4) to present the manual for establishing the elderly school. This research is a participatory action research consisting of three main groups of samples, which are (1) the department which serves as a supporter in the establishment of an elderly school (2) the administrators and faculty of teachers of the elderly school (3) the elderly students enrolled in the elderly school program and their family members. The instrument for collecting data consisted of (1) survey for the elderly learners (2) forms for organizing the teaching curriculum (3) observation guidelines in the learning and teaching management system (4) guidelines for group discussion in monitoring and supervision (5) questionnaire for evaluating the performance. In the part of data collection comprised of (1) meeting in order to exchange ideas (2) workshop (3) monitoring and supervision (4) in-depth interview (5) group discussion using data analysis by analyzing content.
The research results were found as follows; 1. Promoting the establishment and development of the operation of the elderly school in order to achieve the right result in terms of process includes, (1) searching for people and areas of interest (2) creating an understanding in the management process (3) mobilizing the collaborative networks (4) course development. 2. Monitoring the operations, suggestion and support of the establishment of an elderly school will focus on the role of the research team by being mentor who is reflected in the role of Adviser, Tutor, Supporter and Leader. 3. The operation and management of the elderly school curriculum consisting of (1) surveying students’ data and making use of the information (2) flexible curriculum management (3) teaching techniques, using teaching materials and various evaluations (4) providing an atmosphere to promote learning. 4. The suitable model for establishing the elderly school in the community is mixed establishment model (government sector and public sector) as well as using the results of the study in order to develop into a manual for establishing a school for the elderly.
(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)