COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT AND NON-COMMUNICABLE DISEASES (NCDS) MANAGEMENT USING COMMUNITY DIAGNOSIS PROCESS IN LAMPANG, THAILAND

Abstract

Morbidity rate of non communicable diseases (NCDs) in Thailand has been dramatically increasing. The statistics reported by the Bureau of Policy and S trategy, Ministry of Public showed that the crude death rate of Thai population in the year 2015 was 6.9 per 1000 persons and NCDs are the leading cause of mortality and have become a serious public health threat.

This study aimed to synthesize 15 papers of the communities in Lampang province which identified NCDs as a first priority health problem and ran the projects on NCDs management in the Academic year 2016 (August 2015 June 2016). These papers were based on a reality practice of the 4th year nursi ng student in Family and Community Practicum II subject. The main focus was on methods and models as well as factors having impact the success upon community engagement for NCDs management via community diagnosis process. The one month practice of communit y diagnosis consisted of 4 steps: assessment, planning, implementation and evaluation. The concept of community engagement to manage NCDs in such a process is that the community is belonged to people so that they should play a meaningful role in the discus sions, deliberations, decision making and implementation of projects to solve their health problem together with the support by responsible local organizations.

The study comes to the conclusion that the success of NCDs management by engaging community in volvement depended on the factors as followed: 1) the empowerment of community leadership, 2) the local organization cooperation and funding backup, 3) the practical projects to manage NCDs was based on their reality of community background and culture.