| Summary: | 碩士 === 亞洲大學 === 健康產業管理學系長期照護組 === 99 === Background: The need for long-term care is increasing because of longer life expectancies and aging populations. Therefore, a long-term elderly care program has been launched in Taiwan program in 2007 to meet the rapidly increasing need for long-term care in Taiwan's aging population. It is funded by the central government and operated by local government which provides subsidies in different amounts to eligible applicants based on the extent of their disability and their families' economic situation. People with a higher level of disability and with lower family income will be granted a higher amount of subsidy.
Aim: The aim of this study was to examine the outcomes of disabled elders who continuely use the long-term elderly care services for two years.
Design: A database from a rural region long-term care center at Taiwan was used. Disabled elders who continued to use the services for two years were selected to be the study subjects. From 2008 to 2010, a total of 330 people were included.
Results: The results of this study showed the ADL function at six month has been trending up, gradually declined at 12 month. However, only until 18 month the score lower than the initial score. Also those who use respite services, homecare services, home rehabilitation service have lower ADL scores, and who use meal delivery service have higher ADLs scores. The result also revealed that the use of long-term care services can ease caregiver’s burden, especially in those who have use the respite services. Nevertheless, the use of respite services was not wildly accepted by Taiwanese people, the number of people use this service was still low.
Conclusion: The result of this study shows positive outcome within those elders who have been using the services from this long-term elderly care program continually for 24 months. The trend of ADLs scores shows the services delayed those elders’ physical function degeneration. It has also eased the family care burden efficiently. However, the findings also revealed some services still not been wildly used in this rural area.
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