Project News

At the Khon Kaen site, the day service is provided for the elderly in a community four days a week, from Tuesday to Friday. It accepts about four persons a day, who receive physical therapy or massage and interact with others. The schedule for a day is as below.

9:00	Leaving for picking up the elderly
10:00	Arriving at the day care center Washing hands and foot (figure 1) Vital check (figure 2) Physical therapy or massage (figure 3) Break
12:00	Lunch time
13:00	Taking a nap
14:00	Tea time
14:30	Leaving for home (figure 4)

There are some barriers in the day service center because the facility is originally not designed for the elderly with physical disabilities. For example, the entrance is not uneven so that it is not easy to get in and out for the elderly using a walker or wheelchair. About a toilet, it is equipped with a holding bar, but it seems difficult to use for wheelchair users because it is a squat type (figure 5). In addition, there is not enough space to accommodate many people.

In order to solve these problems, a new facility for the day service is under construction supported by Japanese government (figure 6). After its completion, its capacity will increase to be able to accommodate ten persons. There will be no berries at the entrance and in the toilet, thus it will be easier to use the facility for the elderly. Equipments for rehabilitation such as parallel bars will be also introduced so that they will facilitate trainings to improve the physical condition of them.

Khon Kaen site is the model area for long-term care in this region and accepts many visitors from neighboring local governments. Therefore, improvement of the services at Khon Kaen site will lead to the development of long term-care in neighborhood area. Although there are many challenges, we will cooperate with any stakeholders in order to improve and spread community care step by step.

Figure 1 washing hands and foot

Figure 2 blood-pressure measurement

Figure 3 Physical therapy by Japanese volunteer

Figure 4 the elderly in a car

Figure 5 the toilet at the day service

Figure 6 the new facility under construction