Executive Summary

Thai Health Promotion Foundation Performance, Fiscal Year 2021

 

ThaiHealth has committed its health promotion mission through the current 15 health plans by bridging, reaching out and integrating work with all stakeholders. The way of driving work in different health promotion aspects can inspire thinking concepts, creativity and positivity and lead to change in all health and social dimensions, which is aligned with Thailand's 20-Year National Strategy (2017-2036). The plan aimed to foster human development among people of all ages to encourage Thai citizens to have good health.

 

The year 2021 is our year of pride. ThaiHealth was awarded the Nelson Mandela Award for Health Promotion at the 74th World Health Assembly (WHA). As a representative for Thailand, the award has emphasised ThaiHealth’s continuous performance over the past 20 years. Our active health promotion works are well recognised at the international level. The award also marks a success for all Thais who are aware of the change for their better health.

 

During the COVID-19 pandemic, ThaiHealth has continued working on health promotion by adjusting its role in working with stakeholders and covid-19 response. ThaiHealth's action plan aligned with the government policy was also made to fill the gap within the government sector. The goal is to reduce impacts in various social and health dimensions, including the help for people affected by the pandemic in various target groups. We targeted especially the vulnerable groups, the social disadvantages, and formal and informal workers. Thus, ThaiHealth intensified health promotion activities in line with our primary missions so that Thai people have good health in all dimensions. To enhance the better health of the Thai people, a  3,898.55 million baht budget was allocated to 3,582 projects in the fiscal year 2021 to support health promotion, totalling 3,898.55 million baht.

 

The Health Risk Situations

1. Tobacco Consumption

The Thai smoking behaviour survey by the National Statistics Office in 2021 showed that 9.9 million Thai people are smokers, accounting for 17.40 per cent. The amount decreased from 10.70 million smokers in 2017. However, a survey by the World Health Organization found an increase in the smoking rate among Thai students from 13.80 per cent in 2015 to 14.70 per cent in 2021 and an increase in e-cigarette use from 3.30 per cent in 2015 to 8.1 per cent in 2021.

2. Alcohol Consumption

The National Statistics survey on alcohol consumption among the Thai population showed a slight decrease in alcohol consumption from 32.7 per cent in 2004 to 28.41 per cent in 2017 and 28 per cent in 2021. The proportion of hazardous and harmful alcohol consumption has continuously decreased from 9.1 per cent in 2004 to only 0.5 per cent in 2020. The survey result is in line with the /data on alcohol expenses among the Thai population, which has continuously decreased from 181.263 billion baht in 2019 to 171.313 billion baht in 2020.   

3. Road Safety

Following an integrated /data on road accidents by the Disease Control Department, the Ministry of Public Health showed that road accidents in Thailand tended to decrease by 23 per cent, from 21,996 deaths in 2011 to 16,957 deaths in 2021. Those injured from road casualties decreased from 34.20 per cent in 2011 to 21.50 per cent in 2020.

4. Physical Activity

The survey on physical activity by the Institute for Population and Social Research, Mahidol University, with ThaiHealth found that up to 63 per cent of the Thai population had physical activity in 2021. The amount was increased from 54.3 per cent in 2020 before the COVID-19 pandemic emerged. 

5. Vegetables and Fruits Consumption

The study on vegetables and fruits consumption behaviour among the Thai population in 2019 by the Institute of Population and Social Research, Mahidol University, in cooperation with ThaiHealth, found that the amount of the Thai population aged 15 years or above consumed sufficient fruits and vegetables guided by the World Health Organization at 38.70 per cent in 2019, compared to 34.50 per cent in 2018. Meanwhile, the amount Thai children aged 6-14 years facing obesity was at 11 per cent in 2021 compared to 12.5 per cent in 2020.    

 

 

Four Outstanding Achievements of 2021

1. Promoting health promotion during the COVID-19 pandemic            1.1 Comprehensive communication on the campaign "Thai social vaccine for COVID-19."

ThaiHealth contributed active communications with the Ministry of Public Health and related agencies on the “COVID-19 prevention campaign”. It aimed to comprehensively communicate with the public to raise awareness and better understand the COVID-19 pandemic. Among the project outputs are

1) A handbook on COVID-19 vaccines in Thai and other four foreign languages.

2) A handbook on home isolation in Thai and other four languages

3) A chatbot tool created by using Artificial Intelligence (AI) for answering frequently asked questions (FAQs) and providing comprehensive information to the public.

4) Develop up-to-date sets of information

5) Foster a public-private partnership to establish social media platforms, including Facebook, LINE, YouTube, and TikTok. The market value for the online campaign is worth up to 101,855,826.63 baht without the cost of communication to ThaiHealth.

 

1. 1.     1.2.Community capacity development and self-reliance during the crisis

The key successes:

1) Self-reliance in the community during the COVID-19 outbreak:  Support Home Isolation (HI) and Community Isolation (CI) following the government policy at 34 slum communities in Bangkok and vicinity. Eighty leaders are appointed from these communities to take care of COVID-19 patients. As a result, over 500 COVD-19 patients were in the treatment.

2) Promoting wellbeing during the COVID-19 pandemic among Buddhist organisations and Community & Temple Isolation: Support establishing 25 community and temple isolation units, totalling 2,000 beds for COVID-19 patients, following the Ministry of Public Health requirement.

 

1.3 Recover from mental health problems from COVID-19

The key successes:

1) "Together through the COVID-19 outbreak": healing mental health to COVID-19 positive cases: Develop a communication channel to run a live and interactive mental health communication programme for mentoring and recovering COVID-19 positive cases via AIS Play, Facebook and YouTube. A radio programme is also available. Programme details provide information on prevention, treatment, recovery, revitalisation, recuperation, home isolation, community isolation and living a new everyday life. Social media and radio platforms can enable ThaiHealth to communicate reliable information and mentoring for targeted groups.   

 

2) Enhance mental resilience skills and tools for hearing loss: Develop a project, "A network for healing loss and enhancing resilience”, to support loss, grief and stress experienced by people of all ages. So they could overcome pain and sadness and get by amid the crisis.

Several types of tools are developed, for example, 1) training the mentors, 2) storybooks for primary children, 3) developing a curriculum to enhance skills and resilience for health personnel, 4) the Art Therapy for Grief class for mentally support for those who lost their love ones, 5) medical professionals and a network of volunteers and professionals working on healing those losing loved ones.   

 

3) Psychosocial support mechanism to reduce stigmatise of COVID-19  patients: Develop a “mechanism for taking care of psychosocial health for COVID-19 patients” and pilot in Bangkok, Nonthaburi, Pathum Thani, Samutsongkram, Samutprakarn and Thammasat Field Hospital. Capacity development for social workers and community leaders to support the health service system, a total of 47,053 patients and those affected by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

1.4 Revitalising the social foundation and creating a new normal  to combat COVID-19:

The key successes:

1) Revitalising quality of life and promoting grassroots economy for health promotion: Support implementation of up to 177 projects in 23 provinces to contribute to Thai people's access to health promotion. These projects have resulted in the initiated 869 community leaders having knowledge and resilient skills essential for living a new normal life. Over 5,000 beneficiaries can adopt knowledge and skills learned from participating in ThaiHealth-funded programs to put into practice in daily life. These skills include financial and health skills, food production for food security, and occupational skills

 

2) Develop a model for "the anti-drinking community to enhance immunity, literacy preventing COVID-19" in 85 communities, 57,436 households and 216,222 population. Public awareness on alcohol prevention to reduce the risk of alcohol consumption. Community leaders are enabled to run volunteering activities to h promote COVID-19 prevention in risk areas such as markets, labour camps, and slum communities in Bangkok and vicinity.

 

3) Developing smoke-free, alcohol-free and covid-19-free tourist spots following the new normal life: The aim is to promote safe public tourism spots following the COVID-19 pandemic prevention measure. A new normal tourist spot model was implemented in three areas: Bang Saen Beach in Chonburi province, Ao Manao in Prachuab Khirikan province, and Lanta National Marine Park in Koh Lanta Krabi province.   

 

2. Develop children, youth and the young to become "changemakers in wellbeing."

 

2.1 Establish an innovative young generation network for developing a curriculum/learning process to “incubate young innovators for social wellbeing". The project provides three levels: rookie level, semi-pro level and turn-pro level. A total of 39 projects were implemented covering various topics, including health, education, equality, and the environment, which incubated 116 young innovators and over 30,000 people who can access the innovation.

 

2.2 A school for physical activity promotion: develop the physical activity in the school plan "4PC system," which covers 1,290 schools under the Office of Basic Education Commission nationwide. This campaign was developed to support teachers in implementing the plan for an online class. Training sessions for teachers and school executives are also available online to encourage them to continue promoting physical activity.

 

3. “Operation Chiang Mai City" for solving the issue of PM 2.5 air pollutant in eight upper northern provinces and integrating strategic policy on a sustainable solution to fine particles into the following three action plans:

 

1)  A measure to reduce burning activities in the agricultural sector and building fire barriers in the community

2) Develop a "dust fighting class" to raise public awareness on health issues caused by fine particles and enhance lifelong skills among children and youth at 30 schools in Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai and Mae Hong Son provinces.

3) Develop a fuel management system using the "Burn Check application" to reduce air pollution. The output showed an overall reduction of PM 2.5 in 17 northern provinces.

    

4. Strengthening local community: "resilience" and holistic health.

1) Community leadership program: Develop a mechanism for driving resilience at the community level. This program could develop 1,015 community leaders from 130 sub-districts, providing ten topics and 256 innovative projects as community development models.

 

2. Smoke-free local administrative body: A total of 52 models are established in 31 provinces regionwide. The /data was collected from a smartphone using the CS Pro application to report the smoking situation. A total of four smoke-free local administration bodies are recognised as successful models.

 

Performance Outputs

 

Target 1: Risk Factor Reduction

 

1. 1.     1.1.Tobacco Control Plan

Outputs following the implementation are:

1) A tobacco control handbook for staff at the operation level to work effectively on tobacco control

2) Develop the knowledge of the 177 stories on the harmful of tobacco. Two from all of the stories were developed to be the tobacco control policy 1) the study on the return on investment and financial burden on the national tobacco quit line, and 2) tobacco taxation reform.

3) Launching tobacco control literacy integrated into the curriculum at 13 universities

4) A handbook on reducing tobacco, alcohol and gambling risks at Buddhist temples featuring a list of pilot temples successfully supporting 284 Buddhist monks and 290 residents to quit smoking.

 

1. 1.     1.2.Alcohol and Substance Abuse Control Plan

Outputs:

1) Drafted national action plan on alcohol control phase II (2022-2027)

2) Research 31 facts about alcohol impact. The following three facts have been driven at the policymaking level:

- A policy and law enforcement proposal to control alcohol access and a ban on alcohol sales at electronic marketing channels.

- A proposal to assess drunk driving at the community inspection area.

- An open letter of concern toward an amendment of the Alcohol Control Act

3) Expanding model areas of alcohol-free traditional/ cultural festival zone following the COVID-19 prevention measure

4) Support 84 academic works on narcotic situation updates and establish 418 networks of the drug-free zone in 45 provinces.

 

1. 1.     1.3.Road Safety and Disaster Management Plan

Outputs:

1) Support the academic sector in developing an operational plan for road safety 2022. A total of 11 case studies are featured as lessons learned in the operation plan for proposing six solutions for policymakers to solve the issue of road accidents.

2) Develop an accident prevention mechanism in 101 districts in 27 provinces.

3) A set of road safety knowledge for child development centres and primary school level to create health literature on road safety.

4) Published over 15 research papers and academic journals relating to gambling and the stop gambling campaign during the COVID-19 pandemic.

5) Community awareness of multiple disasters and disaster preparedness in 11 pilot provinces and 33 pilots in community disaster management centres cooperate with local sub-district administration bodies.

1.4 Physical Activity Promotion Plan

Outputs:

1) Develop physical activity /database, leading to knowledge management and national and international policy.

2) Develop a piece of knowledge and two types of pilot areas for physical activity during the COVID-19 pandemic.

3) Develop a "Bao Jai" mobile application and personnel platform for promoting health behaviour daily.

4) Support national cooperation mechanism for promoting adequate physical health and reducing the NCD burden.

 

1. 1.     1.4.Healthy Food Promotion Plan

Among the performance outputs are:

1) Drive campaigns and two national policies on reducing sweet, fat and salt consumption.

2) Expand performance outputs in government and private sectors by introducing as many as 2,624 less-sugar coffee bars, less-sugar hospitals, less-sugar schools and healthy meeting models.

3) Set regulations for the industrial sector to adjust sodium levels in food products.

4) A call for reviewing an endorsement of the healthier choice label in five types of beverages, totalling 2,305 products.

5) Set an environment that could benefit the safe consumption of vegetables and fruits at 15 organisations, agencies, companies and model communities. Of the total of 879 participants joining the program, up to 78 per cent could consume a sufficient amount of fruits and vegetables of 400g/day

6) Support a food safety network (Sam Pran Model) to create a sustainable food system. Seventeen organic agricultural groups, having 169 members in four provinces, joined the network.

 

 

 

Target 2: Development of an essential mechanism for reducing other health risks

     

2.1 Health Risk Control Plan

Outputs:

1) Knowledge development to drive consumer protection mechanisms during the COVID-19 outbreak and help create health literacy for the public in 2 issues, namely, "Updating the advertisement of health products during the COVID-19 period" and "Covid-19 insurance."

2) Supporting surveillance and handling of unsafe products through the networks in 6 regions, and able to handle complaints successfully, 79.07 per cent.

3) Developing manuals for management and care for pregnant students in schools. 53,742 teachers passed the sexuality education and life skills teaching competency in the primary education curriculum.

4) Encourage early childhood development in rural areas through a program of positive development and discipline by family participation (Triple P). This resulted in 77.80 per cent of early childhood children's development; an increase from before participating in the project found that the development was age-appropriate at 51.90 per cent.

 

2.2 Healthy Child, Youth and Family Promotion Plan

Outputs:

1. Support the "Thai Kids Play for Change" policy, leading to the development of 787 pilot areas nationwide for Thai kids.
2. A screening process and support for children with delayed development to return to normal at the community level from the implementation in 7 provinces, with 971 people representing 75.92 per cent.
3. Good family relation formats are established in 22 provinces, benefiting 72.24 per cent of families.
4. An increase in the learning process that acknowledges parents, caretakers, teachers, children and youth activity developers on child development was increased by 75.4 per cent.
5. Develop creative activities for children in their learning years and teenagers. A target for physical activity was increased by 89.48 per cent.

 

2.3 Health Promotion Plan for Vulnerable Populations

Outputs:

1. Create a mechanism to support employment opportunities for Thai people with disabilities. Over 3,000 Thai people with disabilities are matched with employers.
2. Develop communication tools in 11 languages and 189 products for self-care during the COVID-19 pandemic for foreign labours.
3. Develop “Rabai”, an online platform for assisting those facing sexual harassment
4. Develop an online curriculum, "Retirement Class", for developing lifelong education skills among senior citizens and the elderly. Over 700 people showed interest in studying and completing the curriculum.
5. Develop a health strategy for gender diversity for LGBTIQN+ as the first strategy in Thailand.   

 

 

Target 3: Enhance institutional competency and the role of community and organisation

    

3.1 Health Community Strategy Plan

Outputs:

1. Enhance community capacity to adjust and become resilient during the general situation and crisis at 98 communities and 20 sub-districts by piloting digital technology for healthy community management.
2. Develop a total of 681 healthy sub-districts capable of responding to general policy and crises.
3. Empower 1,012 local leaders who can create innovation for change. Of the total, 256 innovators across the country can create innovation regionwide.

 

3.2 Healthy Organization Promotion Plan

Outputs:

1. About 144 corporates and 50 organisations are upscaled as ethical businesses and models, respectively.
2. Develop 432 ethical promotors in 286 business sectors to enhance operation and staff relationships.
3. Introducing the "Mindfulness Program" for creating happiness in the model business.
4. Promote two healthy organisations at four policymaking levels
5. Expand a healthy organisational network, with 422 organisations joining the programme, which 71 can be upscaled to be a health promotion organisation model.   

 

​​​Target 4: Create Value and Learning Opportunities

 

4.1 Healthy Media System and Spiritual Health Pathway Promotion Plan

Outputs:

1. Develop 3,615 health communicators and changemakers; about 1,428 can be the leaders, leading to change in the community.
2. Develop communication processes for wellbeing and spiritual health during COVID-19 in 3 cases: a tool to care for the mind to build family relationships, sharing in the form of "Giving Together", and a series of stories to promote health can be applied to create changes in other areas.
3. Continuously support health and health literacy communication in 54 provinces, leading to change in community areas and literacy for supporting primary children in 14 provinces to increase online and offline reading, covering 12 provinces. Children in over 2,224 families are allowed to access active reading.
4. Develop a tool for upscaling policy on the health media ecosystem and effectively putting it into practice.

 

4.2 Health Promotion Literary Plan

Outputs:

1. Develop a health information system, "Your Specific Media", for assisting access to over 1,000 health information sets relating to lifestyle and behaviour. The National Health Security Office and the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society are two agencies supporting sending out information to the target groups.
2. Develop the “Club Wellness” platform for mental health promotion among youth groups.
3. Develop media campaigns; for example, the "80 (speed driving) =Death" campaign against road accidents and casualties could reduce speed driving by 96 per cent. The alcohol-free campaign during the Buddhist Lent period has become a social trend as up to 2.8 million people joined in the campaign. A public awareness campaign on the untold facts about tobacco resulted in 75.2 per cent of respondents being willing to quit smoking and 67.5 per cent of respondents unwilling to try smoking.     

 

Target 5: Expanding opportunities and developing potential for creating health innovation

    

5.1 Health Promotion Innovation and Open Grant Plan

Outputs:

1. Grant contribution to 1,775 community health promotion-related projects and as many as 348,927 beneficiaries. Support 503 creative health promotion projects for contributing opportunities and reducing inequality and gaps among children, youth and ethnic groups. As a result, 1,717 recreational areas for children and youth and 963 health promotional leaders among ethnic groups have been established.

 

1. About 253 young developers were developed to invent 102 piloted health promotion innovation projects to meet target groups.
2. Targeted children and youth groups could produce 11 health promotion-related digital media products, reaching over 275,000 views on social media.
3. Health promotion in Bangkok communities has led to three expansion projects and behavioural change in health among 2,391 target groups. Ad-hoc coordination centres to combat COVID-19 are set up in 35 communities.
4. Upscaling node flagship to implement 130 health promotion projects by connecting funding resources in three provinces.

 

Target 6: Promote competency of health services and supporting systems

 

6.1 Health Promotion in Health Service System Plan

Outputs:

1. Develop a "satisfying district health system" model for driving six health topics in 12 districts.
2. Develop area-based innovation for administrating three health services systems, including health information system (HIS), integrated /database collection throughout the life course, the six value-based applications, and the ‘doctor knows you’ program
3. About 45 physical therapy practitioners nationwide were trained on capacity development to support implementing 15 area-based health promotion projects.
4. A total of 769 research papers developed based on working routines were published for presentation at the national level.
5. A study on health professionals in the 21st century covering 13 health areas
6. Establish the "Pra Kanong Model" for social service and health management to adjust participatory health behaviour.

 

6.2 Health Promotion Mechanism Development Plan

Outputs:

1. ThaiHealth was awarded Nelson Mandela Award 2021 and recognised at the global health level.
2. A total of three mechanisms for bridging health promotion networks have been developed for systematically driving health promotion.
3. Policymaking proposal for four dimensions of health security in the South
4. A total of two innovation outputs from the health promotion innovation competition have been leveraged. These two innovations are the "direction guiding rubber pillar" and the "power of a health-sharing network for creating a healthy community".
5. A total of five capacity-building curriculums have been developed for ThaiHealth stakeholders and 3128 beneficiaries.

 

Audit, Monitoring and Evaluation

Evaluation Report by the Evaluation Committee

 

The evaluation committee monitored and evaluated performance based on a balanced scorecard and the audit framework for government agencies established based on the specific bill on the Office of the Public Sector Development Commission Year 2010. The committee considered five indicators: achievement following the mission, financial aspect, stakeholders, operation, and revolving fund development. The overall ThaiHealth performance in the fiscal year 2021 was rated at 4.88, compared to 4.72 during the fiscal year 2018-2020.

 

An assessment on governance was rated at 9.45 out of 10. The Integrity & Transparency Assessment (ITA) for the fiscal year 2021 was at 93.68 (A level), a slight increase from the fiscal year 2020 and higher than the overall national assessment at an average of 81.25.

 

Audit Report by the Audit Sub-Committee

 

The audit sub-committee agreed that ThaiHealth gave importance to the note previously given by the audit sub-committee. A follow-up on the operation and an improvement where the audit sub-committee spotted the weakness was implemented following the principle of corporate governance and related regulations. The risk management system and audit control are well established. The agency aimed to become a transparent organisation and promote good governance in action at the corporate level to upscale the quality of organisational administration.

Report by the Office of Auditor General

    ThaiHealth's financial statements are authorised.   

 

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