Abstract:
The research aims to 1) To study problems, needs and mental health level
of the elderly 2) To develop three-fold based innovation to promote mental health
of the elderly and 3) To evaluate and propose three-fold based innovation
prototype to promote mental health of the elderly.
The research methodology is as following; 1). Survey and synthesis of
problems and requirements from related research documents and survey research to
know problems and requirements of the elderly including appropriate characteristics
of the system. 2). Design and development of a mobile application including the
techniques and technological tools required in order to develop the system
following the result in 1. 3). Mobile application testing. The research team has
divided samples in to 2 groups. The first group was the group for users' requirements
gathering, which included Buddhism professionals, elderly-society related people and
mobile application professionals with the total number of 19 people. The second
sample group called "testing group" included 30 elderly people, who were residing
in Muang district, Chiang Mai. The data was gathered by in-depth interviewing,
answering questionnaires and satisfaction evaluation forms, and also by using Joint
Application Development (JAD) technique. Where, research tools included sets of
questions, questionnaires and satisfaction evaluation forms and the Thai General
Health Questionnaire the Department of Mental Health. A Knowledge Engineering
tool was employed for synthesizing user requirements systematically.
The results of this study comprises with 1). The technological innovation
which is the "In-house Temple" mobile application that supports the Three-fold
based practices at home, 2). The social innovation which is a transferable model for
other temples and nearby communities to conduct activities together in the modern
society. This report, moreover, demonstrates the mobile application evaluation
results in several aspects and the suggestions for the further deployment of the
innovations other networks of temples communities and elderly by promoting
elderly mental health following the three-fold based principals.
Keywords: Innovation development; Promote mental health; Threefold training.