身心障礙學童照顧者對長照2.0陪同就醫與外出服務之期許與建議

Expectations and Suggestions of Caregivers of Students with Disabilities on Long-term Care 2.0 Accompanying Scheme for Medical Appointments and Outings

Accompanying children with disabilities to medical appointments and outings is a major challenge for family caregivers. In the face of the new Long-term Care 2.0 escorted medical appointments and escorted outings provided by the government, how to improve the system to meet the needs of children with disabilities needs to be further examined. This study is based on the perspectives of the caregivers of children with physical and mental disabilities to understand their expectations and suggestions on the Long-term Care 2.0 system of providing accompanied medical consultation and escorted outing services for children with disabilities. Qualitative interviews were conducted with 12 family caregivers of children with disabilities, and the main interview question was:“What are the future expectations and suggestions of the caregivers of children with disabilities on the Long-term Care 2.0 escorted medical service and escorted outing?“. The data were collected by audio recording and summary transcripts, and analyzed by content analysis method. The results of the study showed that the interviewees basically had a preliminary understanding of the services provided by Long Term Care 2.0, such as escorted medical appointments and escorted outings, but they still need to be further educated by the relevant organizations on the specific contents. However, they still have high expectations for the future services, and their main expectations and suggestions are: (1) to solve the problem of transportation; (2) to have more long-term care service units and caregivers to join the services; and (3) to have caregivers to receive professional training in caring for students with disabilities. This study concludes by suggesting that in the future, the relevant units should raise the awareness of caregivers about Long Term Care 2.0, enhance the human/professional capacity of caregivers, implement professional training for implementing units, and expand the applicability of Long-term Care Transportation in order to meet the needs of students with disabilities who are accompanied by Long Term Care 2.0 to attend medical appointments and accompany them to go out for services.