Project News

The Japan Training "Sustainable Provision of Seamless Health and Social Services for Older Persons" was conducted from 22 to 31 August 2022. A total of 16 persons participated in the training program, including representatives from the Project Sites, the Ministry of Public Health, the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security, the National Health Security Office. and the Drafting and Research Teams for the Policy Recommendations currently being worked on by the project.

The objectives of the training were:

1. To understand comprehensive Japanese Seamless Health Care and Social Service System including various service delivery models, connection among different organizations, management and financing of hospitals and facilities, and health work force development.
2. To discuss how to adapt and incorporate Japanese experience into Thai context as Policy Recommendations
3. To finalize the contents of Draft Policy Recommendations based on the learnings in Japan.

During the 10 days of the training course, the participants visited seamless care sites for older persons in Japan, reflected on what they had learnt, and continued discussions on the application of what they had seen and learned for Policy Recommendations in Thailand. On the last day of the training, the participants were connected online with the officials from Thailand involved in the development of the Policy Recommendations and presented the results of the training as well as the contents of final draft of the Policy Recommendations.

Very active discussions were made during the training course. In particular, the structure and operation of Japanese "Recovery Phase Rehabilitation Wards" provided many insights into the future of IMC wards in Thailand and led to deeper discussions on the specific suggestions related to IMC wards in the Policy Recommendations.

This Japan training was the last Japan training to be conducted under the S-TOP project, which will be completed at the end of October 2022. All trainees will continue to work towards the promotion of seamless care for older persons in their workplaces even after the project ends. We look forward to the future activities by the trainees and improvement of Seamless Care in Thailand through appropriate IMC service provision.