Community-Based Long-Term Care in Taiwan: The Service Experiences of Tier B Centers

Abstract

This qualitative study explored the community-based long-term care in Taiwan, examining the service experiences of Taiwan’s Tier B centers. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven Tier B service centers managers. The interview transcripts were analyzed by comparing the participants’ responses to find similarities and inducted into three themes. It was found that the adversities encountered include frequent policy revisions, the lack of systematized training programs, the high turnover rate among service providers, as well as differing perceptions between family members and service providers. They tried to solve problems and suggested policy improvement, including establishing platforms for government-citizen dialogue as well as creating supervision and evaluation mechanisms. Consequently, Tier B service centers benefit the community and the long-term care industry as elderly people can age in place and reduce families’ caregiving burden. Also, the practical experiences provide the real situation of differences between policies, training, and social service promotion. For future research, it is suggested to use this study’s results as a blueprint and conduct a questionnaire survey on all Tier B service centers in the country to understand the overall service outcomes. And propose suggestions for policy revision and formulating training programs for service providers.