In 2015, the American Geriatrics Society "Aging 2.0" emphasized that government policy intervention and investment in social resources are the keys to actively assisting the elderly population to actively aging. In December 2016, with the aging of the population and with the diversification of demand for care services leading to a steady increase in the number of people in needs of long-term care (LTC) services, the Taiwan Executive Yuan thus approved the “National Ten-year Long-term Care Plan 2.0” (Long-Term Care Plan 2.0), with the aim of meeting the LTC needs of Taiwan’s aging population. The Long-term Care Plan 2.0 is a revised edition of the original plan, dubbed version 1.0 and approved by the Executive Yuan in 2007. The new iteration was designed to have a more local-level focus, and is a step toward the government’s ultimate goal of establishing a complete chain of care, from preventative health care to community-based support services and finally late-life hospice care. WuFeng University is located in Chiayi County, Taiwan, and it cultivates professionals with the concept of "safety" and with "caring for the safety of people" as its core value. Through the cooperation of the community and the school, current project promoted the concept of safe and healthy aging in the community and created a lively and friendly elderly community to promote Intergenerational interactions to enhance the life value and dignity of the elderly. This project is based on local needs, people-oriented, caring and assisting in solving regional problems, and fulfilling social responsibilities, thereby help the government to build a healthy, happy, vibrant and friendly elderly society.
The problems collected from the current community were: worrying about the loss of elders with dementia; worrying about health issues; not knowing how to plan daily life; not knowing where to go; not knowing how to fight for resources, a total of 5 issues. Even if the government actively promotes “National Ten-year Long-term Care Plan 2.0” (Long-Term Care Plan 2.0) related projects, the problem still exists and cannot be resolved. Community residents seem to be close to each other, but in fact, this is not the case. Many communities still have the five major issues mentioned in the current project, especially question five: “Don’t know how to fight for resources.”
However, with the help of teachers and students from Wufeng University and the Peiyuan Evergreen Care Association and with the help of the Ministry of Education's University Social Responsibility Practice Program funding, we found, in the community, teachers and students from Wufeng University interacted with the community residents via multiple activities to promote the concept of safe and healthy aging in the community and creating a LOHAS and friendly elderly community, we hope that we can help this aging community be more energetic and improving the quality of their life among the elderly people. Furthermore, the school has also been profoundly recognized by the local residents. This is an unexpected result.
Meanwhile, at the University, teachers try to convert the traditional lecture hall teaching to the Problem-Based Learning (PBL) method, using design thinking concept, to promote students in different field/profession learning together by using the complex real-world problems as the vehicle. So far, students are more interested in this kind of community service based PBL learning rather than the in-classroom lecture.