長期照護：社區的遠距健康照護

Long Term Care: The Application of Telehealth Care in Community

台灣在1993 年的老年人口比例超過總人口數的7％，已經正式成為聯合國所定義的高齡化社會。隨著老年人口的增加，長期照護的需求也跟著增加。如何協助老年人在熟悉的環境中老化，達成「在地老化」的目標已經成為我國老年照護之重要議題。我國的長期照護發展始於1980 年代，目前的服務模式可被區分為機構式、社區式、居家式、及特殊性的長期照護。隨著科技的發展，遠距照護已經成為一個趨勢。而台灣也於2007 年開始由衛生署執行遠距照護試辦計畫。本篇文章旨在介紹遠距健康照護在長期照護上的應用。期望讀者通過閱讀本文，可以加深對遠距健康照護的認識，然而如何在長期照護上應用這些科技，將成為未來之挑戰。

In year 1993, Taiwan became an aged society as it ageing population reach to 7% of the total population. How to help seniors to have a choice in their care and living arrangements at their own communities is become an important issue as “Ageing in Place” has been one of health policies in Taiwan. The long term care program was first established and introduced to Taiwanese society on 1980s. It is one of major elderly health care issues now. In Taiwan, long term care service can be defined into four types which are home care, community care, institutional care and special long term care service such as dementia and hospice care. Moreover, telehealth care has been a trend among the health care with elderly people. Department of Health in Taiwan had introduced and applied Telehealth program with long term care approach since year 2007. The purpose of this article is to brief introduce the applications of telehealth care in long term care. However, there is still a challenge for further application among elders and health care professionals.