Project News

On the 24th and 25th July 2014, for two days, the second policy discussion seminar was held in Thailand. On the 24th, Japanese visitors have observed activities of Care managers and care workers in Nakhon Ratchasima site.

On the 25th, at the MOPH meeting room, Thai and Japanese member have conducted a policy discussion under the theme: Human Resource Development on Elderly Care in Thailand. The issues on Human Resource Development was clarified to develop policy recommendations in the future. From Thai side, representatives from relevant ministries including Ministry of Public Health (MOPH), Ministry of Social Development and Human Security (MSDHS), Ministry of Finance (MOF), Ministry of Interior (MOI) and Ministry of Labor (MOL) have attended. Other organizations such as Office of the National Economic and Social Development Board (NESDB), Health Insurance System Research office (HISRO), universities in Thailand (Chulalongkorn university etc) and local government officers from our 6 project sites have also participated in. From Japanese side, representatives from Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW), Embassy of Japan in Thailand, JICA Headquarter and JICA Thailand have attended.

At the opening, Dr. Chanvit (Deputy Permanent Secretary, MOPH), Ms. Siriwan (Elderly expert at MSDHS) and Dr. Horie (Deputy Assistant Minister for International Affairs, MHLW) did the opening remarks, then two Thai ex-trainees who have just come back from Japan counterpart training have presented about their lessons learnt in Japan and the issues on Human Resource Development on elderly care in Thailand were discussed. Later, Mr. Iwana from Mitsubishi UFJ Research and Consulting, who was the lecturer of the Japan training has shared his suggestions for the improvement of LTOP, based on the observation and interview at 3 sites he has visited. His suggestion included "to further clarify the role of care managers in Thailand."

In the afternoon, site coordinators from 6 sites have presented the current situation and issues on Care managers and care workers in each site, then Dr. Jiraporn, the assistant professor from Chulalongkorn University facilitated the panel discussion based on the discussion already made throughout the seminar. There were many opinions and suggestions raised from the panelists as well as participants, such as the finance at the project sites, the needs of clarification of elderly care level in Thailand, effectiveness of visualization of elderly data in each site, knowledge transfer on elderly care from Thailand to ASEAN countries, development of handy manual on care management, suggestions on contents and target of Japan training in the next year etc. The discussion was very fruitful.

Day 1: Visited Nakhon Ratchasima site

Day2: Group photo of 2nd policy discussion seminar