[Development and effectiveness of care preventive supporter training programs based on a literature review]

Objective　Many preventive care supporter (e.g. kaigo-yobo supporter) training programs, conducted to train community residents, are developed by municipalities. However, it is not necessary that only municipalities can train people effectively or efficiently. In this paper, we initially reviewed the relevant literature and clarified the definitions of concepts like "program contents" and "evaluation indicators," while also planning our own training programs. Later, we developed a program based on the review and examined the results.Methods　The literature of the training program was examined, and the training program was developed based on the result. Four researchers and three public health nurses from a community general support center, in the Otsuchi Town of Iwate Prefecture, developed a training program from June to September 2017. The training program developed was then conducted from October to November 2017. To evaluate the participants' satisfaction with the program, a self-report survey was conducted. To evaluate the outcomes of the program, we measured their degree of comprehension of their community's challenges, before and after the program.Results　The training program was divided into two parts following the literature review. In the first part, the content of the supporters' activities following the program was determined (Type A), and, in the second, the same content was evaluated by the participants within the program (Type B). Type A consisted of various aspects including both concrete knowledge and skills needed to conduct care preventiveactivities after the program. In Type B, there were many aspects-including both lectures and exercises-that aimed to increase the participants' awareness of community challenges, as well as inspection to learn about pioneering activities which helped them consider concrete care preventive activities following the program. In Otsuchi Town, we found it to be imperative for participants to consider how to respond to various situations and accordingly plan the training program for use in Type B. To evaluate the results, 12 participants were analyzed. Participants included two men and ten women, with an average age of 71.4±10.0 years [range: 53-88]. Comprehension levels of community challenges (3.1→4.1, P=0.046), as well as the confidence to actively involve themselves in their own preventive care strategies (3.4→4.0, P=0.035), significantly increased after involvement in the program. However, their confidence to work for community preventive care support groups (3.1→3.5, P=0.227) did not increase significantly.Conclusion　We clarified certain viewpoints, such as the purpose, content, and evaluation indices of community care training programs, by reviewing the relevant literature. Based on the discovered viewpoints, we were then able to obtain certain results through implementing our own training programs, thereby significantly increasing participant comprehension and confidence levels.