In June of 2018, the Faculty of Nursing at Chiang Mai University acquired funding from the Thai Health Promotion Foundation to embark on a Health Literacy Project. This project aimed to bring health education and literacy to the community, with the goal of individuals being informed about their own health status and being able to make correct and beneficial health decisions, leading to better overall health outcomes. This project is managed by Asst. Prof. Dr. Anon Suthanon of the Chiang Mai University Faculty of Nursing, and chaired by former dean Assoc. Prof. Wilawan Senaratana. Together they supervise and train staff and government employees at the Department of Public Health.
The Health Literacy Project continues to work in collaboration with other faculties at Chiang Mai University, including the Faculty of Obstetrics, the Faculty of Economics, and previously, the Faculty of Science (as part of the Saraphee Project in 2014). These project outcomes continue to inform ongoing and larger scale health promotion projects. As reported in the December 2018 Issue of Research Wisdom magazine, after this project phase, the Thai Health Promotion Foundation gave further funding to continue these projects.
In November of 2019, the Ageing Developed Care Project was launched by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Decha Tamdee. This project, a part of the Faculty of Nursing at Chiang Mai University’s Center of Excellence, is part of a grant for the “Ageing Society” project. This project aims to build upon the existing national health care regulations for older adults and to develop a strong healthcare system for the older adults. The 8-month long data collection phase has already started and will take place across 8 provinces in northern Thailand. The data collected about older adult health on a community level will be used by the Thai Health Promotion Foundation to develop an action plan. This project and data will be supported by additional data obtained by the Chiang Mai University Faculty of Nursing and implemented over the next 3 years across the 8 provinces. Future phases include developing and launching the project (1 year) and running the project (2 years), depending on funding. During this timeframe, if the project shows a large enough margin of success, there may be the opportunity to bring this into the national level with support from the Thai government and to launch new regulations regarding older adult health care initiatives on the sub-district and district level and to update the existing older adult care policies and strategic plans. This is an effort to connect community to policy.
For example, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Decha Tamdee notes, “A policy maker doesn’t know what the monks at the local temple know about the older adults in their community, so by working with the Faculty of Nursing, important information can be passed to both the local and government level of organizations and committees about older adult health care problems and solutions.”
This allows for an environment where sharing and learning outcomes can be shared and can be used to plan future directions.
The project works on multiple levels within both districts and villages. The District Health Board (DHB) manages one main project for the district. Each tambol (similar to a neighborhood) within the district has its own Tambon Health Board (THB) which manages their own project. Finally, each village within each tambol, has a Village Health Board (VHB) which oversees projects at the smallest community level. Each board has been developed in consultation with the Chiang Mai University Faculty of Nursing with a goal of ensuring quality of life across the lifespan, known as a “From Womb to Tomb” initiative.
At a district level, one faculty member helps to manage all projects. Student projects and practical community experience is further developed within these districts. This allows for a direct connection between nursing students and the community. If successful, this project will be scaled up nationally.
An overriding goal in this project as well as other projects conducted by the Center is to enable capacity building. The Ageing Developed Care Project enables members to collect their own data and create proposals and action plans for primary healthcare initiatives. This capacity building further strengthens the dual goals of creating a healthier population, with a focus on developing health literacy and self-determined health choices and actions on the community and individual level, in order to create and build health literacy in the population.
The Center is encouraging these committees to be self-sufficient and to make decisions and take action with minimal ongoing consultation from the university. Ideally, the Center would primarily provide technical assistance and facilitation, but allow each committee and community to determine their own projects. As part of this collaboration, the committees will provide regular updates to the Center, and FON bachelor or master-level nursing students will conduct community field visits to assist with the project and to conduct evaluation. Students will also launch, manage, and evaluate a health care project with the support of tambon committees, for the benefit of the local communities. This allows for a collaborative environment where the students and committee members learn from each other and further build health promotion efforts.