Development of a Mental Health Model for Supporting Diabetes Patients in Maharaj Nakhon Si Thammarat Hospital

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to develop a mental health model for supporting diabetes patients who were waiting for medical check-up at outpatient department in Nakhon Si Thammarat Hospital.Participants in the study included type 2 diabetes patients, multidisciplinary health care team members and volunteer leaders. There were four steps in the model: (1) problem and situational analysis, (2) model development with specifying roles and responsibility of team members and all stakeholders, (3) model implementation and and evaluation and (4) final model improvement. The study tools were comprised of patient’s demographic data questionnaires, patient’s self-perception questionnaires, patient’s self-satisfied questionnaires and guideline of questions using for interviewing the feeling of patients, multidisciplinary health care team and volunteer leaders towards the model. The qualitative data were analyzed by using descriptive statistic and the qualitative data by content analysis technique. The results of this study revealed that the appropriate model would compose of the following features: (1) nurse should be a leader of the multidisciplinary health care team, and (2) the use of dialogues was a best method for communicating and empowering patient’s self-management. In addition, the optimum activities were based on three patterns: (1) discussing and sharing of experiences in self care behavior, (2) practicing foot massage and (3) using Buddhist teaching for achieving harmony of mind. All of these activities were resulted in a high level of patient’s satisfaction (87.04%) due to comfortable feeling (93.27%), not getting boring from waiting in a long queue (94.15%), having good spirit (91.43%), and felt relaxing (89.12%). The model had affected the patients in five domains: (1) having good impression and peace of mind, (2) feeling pleased with meeting friends, (3) obtaining happiness and good spirit, (4) having relaxation, and (5) obtaining knowledge and experience in self care. Furthermore, the study highlighted the positive perception of multidisciplinary health care team towards the model: (1) caring for patients in a holistic way, (2) improving health care service, and 3) being proud of themselves and their profession. In the same way, for the volunteer leaders, the study also reported their perceptions towards this model which were: (1) being proud and pleasant, (2) receiving good lesson for themselves and others, (3) finding true friends and (4) learning the new things in life.