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Top2. Literature Review
- A.
Population aging issue
With the increasingly aging population, the incidence of chronic diseases will also rise. Furthermore, the family structure miniaturization of our country and increased female participation in the workforce have led to the reduction of human resources in family care, and thus the elderly and LTC need the nation’s key polices (Wang & Tsay, 2012). The government needs to invest in multiple care services, including short term, long term, home, community, and institution, so as to satisfy the care demands of the elderly with different physical statuses. Meanwhile, attention must be paid to training care workers since considerable patience is needed to care for the disabled and people who have difficulty moving.
2.1. Home Care Services
LTC consists of a wide and complex range, including intermediate nursing skills, assisted living, personal care, daily care, temporary care, and home care, etc. In general, LTC does not include short-term hospitalization (Stallard, 2017). WHO (World Health Organization) defines home care services as “Providing patients integrated health and pillar services in his/her residence, aiming to prevent, delay, or replace the use of temporary or long-term institutional care.”(Knight & Tjassing, 1994). In Taiwan, LTC services provided at home include as follows: physical care services, daily life care services, domestic chores service, food and nutritional services, auxiliary appliance services, necessary home facility adjustment and improvement services, psychological support services, emergency rescue services, healthcare services, services for prevention of other or aggravated disability conditions. Other LTC related services can be provided at home as determined by the central competent authority. In summary, home care services involve the government transferring medical and care services to the home so the elderly and disabled can be cared for in their home, and such care services require the cooperation of the care workers. Therefore, care workers must also be included in the study.