Roles of Village Health Volunteers: COVID-19 Prevention and Control in Thailand

Abstract

Taiwan and Thailand have effectively responded to the COVID-19 pandemic more so than more advanced health systems. Both countries have an effective focus on primary healthcare and multi- sectoral collaboration with effective and open communication of powerful health messages. In the case of Thailand, the central role of village health volunteers has also made a significant contribution. The lessons from recent experiences need to be further evaluated to consolidate the lessons learned in anticipation of meeting continuing and future challenges.

Community Health Workers as Street-level Quasi-Bureaucrats in the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Cases of Kenya and Thailand

“…Although the socioeconomic conditions in Kenya and Thailand are different, comparing the two is both relevant and appropriate for exploring CHWs' work in different institutional contexts of the public health systems. The two countries experience critical shortages of primary healthcare personnel, particularly in the rural areas, and have depended on CHWs since the 1970s to deliver primary healthcare services to the rural populations (Geissler and Prince 2020;Tejativaddhana et al 2020). As we show, the institutional context of the two countries' public health systems appeared to influence CHWs' responses to the pandemic.…”

“…Second, due to Kenya's decentralized public health system, the subnational governments are responsible for training and supervising CHWs (Takasugi and Lee 2012). In Thailand, on the other hand, the training and supervisory responsibilities rest with the national government (Tejativaddhana et al 2020). Third, Thailand's public health financing arrangements are based on a complex national-subnational partnership.…”

“…Several scholars suggest that community health workers (CHWs) serve a crucial role in helping Kenya and Thailand keep COVID-19 under control (e.g. Geissler and Prince 2020; Tejativaddhana et al 2020). Defined as citizens who work for pay or as volunteers in collaboration with the professional healthcare personnel, CHWs alleviate capacity constraints on the existing health workforce by offering routine primary healthcare services and treating common illnesses among the vulnerable and rural populations (Boyce and Katz 2020).…”

Structural relationships between psychosocial risk, relationship quality, need for cognition, and quarantine intentions: the case of the quarantine hotel

“…Croitor et al ( 2021 ) define behavioral intentions as how much a consumer will consider to proceed or not with a future attitude toward a specific service. During the COVID-19 quarantine, once the neighborhood commits to social distancing rules, members will follow each other’s behavior (Tejativaddhana et al 2020 ). According to Chayomchai et al ( 2020 ), behavioral intentions positively affect the actual use behavior of technologies during quarantine time.…”

Village Health Volunteers: Facing up to the Covid-19 Challenge

“…Thailand declared Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) as a dangerous and contagious disease under the Communicable Disease Act (2015) on February 26, 2020 -shortly after the pandemic had been officially identified by the Chinese government [2]. VHVs act in a significant way to prevent and control the pandemic [3].…”