TU and Thai Health Promotion Foundation are fond of Social Telecare Platform, helping to elevate the work of modern social workers.

Friday 26 May 2023

     Due the social problems on the rising number of patients in the community that shall be closely monitored physically and mentally. Access to medical systems between doctors and patients is difficult, especially in the wilderness that is in the distance from the city center meaning, when people get sick, it may take a long time to travel for treatment. As a result, some are seriously ill, unable to withstand the symptoms and die on the way to the hospital or medical clinic.

     Social Telecare Platform, therefore, is directly connected with the healthcare team, helping to reduce costs for public health and extending it into social policy proposals on caring for vulnerable groups, connecting with the health insurance system and primary health care system, and providing social services will reduce the limitations of the remote service system.

     Prof. Rapeepan Khamhom, Lecturer at the Faculty of Social Administration and the head of the project to develop and strengthen the multidisciplinary social care mechanisms and networks to support the primary health care system that Thammasat University and its partners jointly implemented, as supported by the project from the ThaiHealth Fund. Thai The Thai Health Promotion Foundation revealed that this project is the first to bring together all 23 medical social work tools for patient assessment, including creating a health care plan which can be used in conjunction with other professions to achieve standards and reliability in operation, can be used to design social welfare services, support case management together with a multidisciplinary team and can be used to monitor patients at the primary level. From the implementation of the 12 sandbox project, social workers can improve their digital capabilities in their work, reduce paperwork, reduce work time and if there is a complete connection, a more efficient patient care is achieved. However, it is expected that in the second year, the Social Telecare Platform system will be developed to work synchronously with that of the District Health Board (DHB).

     The next phase of the project will attempt to link with the local social worker or social worker system of the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security in order to work seamlessly.

     Mr. Watchara Omsiri, Faculty of Engineering, Thammasat University revealed that for the first time the tools in the Social Telecare Platform have been gathered this much, it is a new subject for social workers, therefore making everyone excited and able to take advantage of modern skill enhancement, although it may have to adjust the way of working from the former practice that is used to recording with paper, but the tools in the Social Telecare Platform will help process and display results quickly and clearly. The design then must be more flexible and accurate, however, developing a system to meet the needs of social workers takes time and continually develops.

     Mrs. Yaowarat Khammanad, President of the Thai Medical Social Workers Association, said social worker in the health service system need to adapt to keep up with the situation in the next era. It is a normal thing to learn about digital media, both about Social Telecare Platform or Telehealth, which can be learned while working with a support system similarly to that the project currently operates and will definitely expand further. Social workers across the country therefore are welcome to come and learn for the benefit of self-development and the service system.

     Dr. Khanittha Buranaphansak, Head of Social Administration, Thammasat Hospital, said that the tasks of social workers is challenging because they have to work with various groups of people such as the disabled, the elderly, the vulnerable groups and the urban poor who face difficulties. The integration of knowledge from various disciplines, including social knowledge, rights knowledge, legal knowledge, knowledge of social work tools and various digital knowledge to drive, while other professions can as well apply this knowledge further. This ensure that the Social Telecare Platform tools lead to standardized assessment and planning of support and treatment which in the next phase of the project will show the map of the resources in each area as well.