Context, Problems, and Approaches to the Environment Management for the Dependency Elderly with Community

Abstract

The objectives of this research are 1) to study the community context, problems in the environment management for the dependency elderly 2) to study the guidelines for the environment management for the dependency elderly by the community. The methodology is qualitative research. The target group consists of Village Health Volunteer, dependency elderly, and caregiver totaling 10 peoples who selected according to the specified criteria. The instrument used were Issues and semi-structured interviews and analyze data with content analysis.

            The following results are found:

           1) Most of the dependency elderly had a caregiver which is the offspring or in-law. There are only some houses that have only the elderly living together and will have a village health volunteer to take care of them as well. The village health volunteer working style has 2 forms: Formal work in accordance with the responsibility assigned by the Ministry of Public Health by making home visits at least four times a month, and informal work use relationships to take care of such as neighboring, kinship and supporting some unable elderly. The problems encountered include physical and environmental problems in the home and environmental health problems that affect health.

           2) The guidelines for the environmental management for the dependent elderly with community are as follows: Training should be provided on a regular basis, additional knowledge used in care including knowledge about environmental health, problem-solving skills, rational decision-making skills, and effective communication skills. Caregivers should be compassionate and have a good relationship with the elderly. The arrangement of the environment should be compromised, have some advice from the elderly, and a care manager should be on-site together to give opinions on environmental health affecting health.