Project News

A hybrid workshop on human resource management under work from home (WHF) environment targeted at supervisors and personnel officers of the contact center of the National Health Security Office (NHSO) took place successfully at Bangkok on 2 September 2022.

Under the COVID pandemic, similar to world trends, many companies in Thailand introduced telework; in particular, NHSO has adopted the WFH policy proactively, and the contact center, that address the individual voice to protect health right of population, has done likewise.

The contact center receives questions and complaints about health services, coordinates referral to hospitals, etc, 24/7 through hotline #1330. In addition, since the outbreak of COVID-19, the hotline became utilized as a primary contact point for COVID patients. As more people infected, the number of calls surged, which exhausted staff and increased staff turnover rate. In response, NHSO seeks effective measures to make decent work environments under WHF policy for mental health promotion and reduction of turnover rate.

In the workshop, the center presented their recent mental health surveys, which shows interesting findings such as stress level was higher in young people, women, and partial WFH period. Subsequently, a Japanese expert gave a lecture based on the guideline on mental health management under teleworking environment created by working committee, that he served as a chairperson, and issued by Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare in March 2022. His classification of risk factors under WFH (workplace-, other-than-workplace-, and individual factors) and each measures seems helpful to further analyze the survey results. Their practical discussion found out that the center held complex and uncommon issues, that is, the combination of issues of shift work and issues of WFH. Finally, the on-site participants from the center had very active group discussion and presentations. They will summarize their learnings, findings and proposal for improvement in a report.

The contact center plays a central role in health rights protection of the population. We hope that the workshop served as a catalyst to further advance the mental health measures of the center and thus enhance their functions.