Project Access Safety Net Rural Elderly & Disabled

In May we welcomed Nong Gai, our Assistant Community Care Coordinator. She joins us from the Long Khot Sub-District, the southernmost subdistrict and often left behind by the District head office. She knows our constituents in Long Khot and is a soothing presence. She was quick to pick up the data collection process and got her driver's license (that took determination with the long backlog after the pandemic) so she can drive to visits. Gai has worked in the local public health clinic and as a community health volunteer.

With the extra driving and caring capacity, Soda and Gai have been able to add constituents from Mae Wan, Wiang Phrao. and Teung Leung Subdistricts (we are covering a total of 6 out of 11 sub-districts in Phrao). Soda has set up meetings with each of the adjacent sub-district social services leaders to identify people that need the care we can provide. In exchange, the two care providers budgeted by the sub-district coordinate with Soda and provide special services, like physical therapy at home.

Another resource that Soda has nurtured is the physical therapy program at one of the public health clinics that specialize in massage therapy and has a small center with basic equipment. Phrao residents can go to the physical therapy center for free; we make the appointments and drive them there. We're seeing improvements in stroke victims and some chronic back pain.

In addition to physical therapy, we have been asked for hearing aids and false teeth, both expensive and hard to get in our rural villages.  We are testing some over-the-counting hearing amplification devices that seem to work without the tiny batteries that get lost and are hard to replace.  Our kind, energetic dentist at the Phrao Hospital has been reviewing patients with dental issues and has provided a range of solutions to improve their dental health.

Thank you for caring for our elders and disabled neighbors.  Together, we have provided care for over 100 people in the first half of the year. We've taken 39 new people into the program.  We have lost a few people to natural causes, but the best is when families can step in and take over - so far 20 people this year. 

Thank you for making this possible,

Dana, Michael, Evelind with Soda, Nong Gai, and the Phrao community.

With volunteers Larry and Alex helping Soda since January, the visits have included getting a cherished, but old TV repaired, meeting new people referred from various Phrao sub-districts, and driving to get people to doctor's visits in Phrao and Chiang Mai.  The Chiang Mai visits take a whole day, but Soda is helping a family get a boy with a rare disease into the government care system for financial and medical support. 

Over the past few months, Lary, Alex, and Soda, our Community Care Manager, have been reviewing and streamlining daily processes and improving data collection.  This puts us in a position to expand the program to additional elders and people with homebound disabilities.

We started the process of reviewing the program using the data we had accumulated over the last several years.  Which data was useful in providing care, and which data do we need for basic demographics?  What steps in the process slow down care and data collection?  We cleaned up the historical records and started new surveys and data collection templates.  Volunteer, Judith, set up the new database with a phone-accessible web form for data entry.  Larry and Alex were able to give an outside perspective and help Soda think through where the team could be more efficient, leveraging volunteers and other staff members to add visits that did not require Soda.  The team of volunteers and Soda have completed over fifty baseline surveys of current clients to update their data annually and focus the data collected on each visit.

We're now working in four sub-districts and Soda has a cohort of peers to review those needs and identify the best care.  She is working with the heads of public health at the subdistrict level to review the people identified in need of regular visits.  She can request visits from Public Health Caregivers to get physical therapy help where needed.  Soda and the volunteers cover the unmet needs during regular visits to give cheer and bring supplies, like adult diapers and nutritious food to supplement the meager government pensions. 

The Brother Trust has given us a grant to add an assistant for Soda this year.  With your gifts to support Soda and the supplies and petrol to run the daily program, we will be able to visit and support the growing elder population in our District.

Thank you for making this possible!

Dana, Michael, Evelind, and the Warm Heart Team