สนับสนุนทุนโดยแผนงานสร้างเสริมสุขภาพคนพิการในสังคมไทย,สำนักงานกองทุนการสร้างเสริมสุขภาพ, สถาบันวิจัยระบบสาธารณสุข

Project title: Local wisdom management for health care and health promotion in handicap: A case study in traditional healer network Three objectives of the project were 1) to understand current situation of local healing wisdom for caring health problem and promoting health status in handicap, 2) to set time frame and issues for the future research and actions in this area, and 3) to develop suitable directions for management local health wisdom for people with physical disabilities. Literature review and field survey in 3 provinces i.e. Chiang Mai, Uthaithani, and Ubon Ratchathani were used as main methods for gathering data. The representatives from the traditional healer networks in all 4 parts of country were invited to share their knowledge and experiences. Some of them were interviewed for more information. This study found that 54 traditional healers in 12 provinces have experiences in healing or caring patients with physical disabilities. Four of them are Buddhist monks who have practiced in 3 temples. For the other 50 traditional healers, 49 have practiced at their homes while the other worked at a health service center. Their knowledge in healing and caring handicap patients obtained from their ancestors as well as their own experiences. The common-used techniques for this group of patients were massage with oil or hot herbal compression or herbal steam sauna and herbal medicine. Group of traditional healers were classified by their expertise or the main healing techniques that they used such as bone-fixing healer, massage healer, oil or sacred-oil healer, and herbal healer. In case of practicing in a temple, patient and their relatives especially for the one who came from other provinces always stayed in that temple during the course of treatment. This study found that local healing wisdoms were concentrated not only on the healing techniques but also on the general recommendations such as suitable food, physical exercise and relaxation for the better health of patients. These services were supported both physical and psychological problems in patients and their relatives. The reasonable price, sympathy services, accessibility and efficacy of these traditional healing wisdoms were the main reasons to let traditional healers occupied some space in this biomedical-dominant society. The collaboration between government sector and nongovernment organizations as well as people who interesting in this area are very important factors for development and management this valuable local health wisdom for people with physical disabilities. The recommendations from this study are: 1) to support the practices of traditional healers in their communities by the cooperation with community organization, patients, other social networks, and government sector, 2) to provide fund and other resources for local health wisdom research in the community that will bring traditional healers, local researchers and other health networks to set research frames and methods together, 3) to expand the community healers’ network to other health professionals especially for the physical therapist for sharing knowledge and experiences that will produce the better or new techniques in their practices.