Although the government has made numerous efforts to improve the mechanism and the quality of healthcare services for the aging population, several problems on providing care services still remain pronounced. An integration of community-based care in long-term care, permitting the provision of care to be driven and tailored by community health needs, belief and values, is one of the promising approaches suggested in the literature towards addressing this issue successfully. This project aims to identify the best practice of community-based integrated LT care which could in essence be replicated in any community in Thailand. In addition to the best practice and a set of guidelines, the project intends to provide a dialogue for best management practice so that other communities, as well as related government agencies, can learn the process of developing community-based integrated LT care.

This project, which focused on communities where community-based integrated long-term elder care is available in four geographical regions of Thailand, has three objectives. Firstly, to propose ‘best practices’ for community-based integrated long-term care that appropriately address the needs of the older adults in the community and improves access to quality long-term care. Secondly, to draw up a set of guidelines and organizational models that show the alignment, connectivity and collaboration within and between the key actors involved in community-based integrated long-term elder care, such that the core essence of any recommendations can be replicated by any community in Thailand. Thirdly, to provide lessons to be learnt from the best management practices so that communities, as well as related governmental entities, can understand the process of developing community-based integrated long-term care.
The report from this project, titled “Community-based Integrated Approach for Older Persons’ Long-term Care in Thailand” has been developed and distributed to stakeholders in Thailand.