Guarding the health of locals for a long term. Cultivating community with whole person care.

Healthy growth and healthy agings are the needs and desires of modern citizens. The USR team of Chang Gung University is constituted of teachers and students from Chang Gung University and Chang Gung University of Science and Technology in addition to professional teachers and passionate assistants from Hsin Sheng College of Medical Care and Management. They initiate with caring for communities and residents’ health. The activity trail started from the tribe in Fuxing District and returned to Guishan District and Linkou District around the campus. The teachers and students of the team build up a bridge between the school and communities through actively walking into the field to find out local needs, which makes residents more familiar with Chang Gung University, and thus the distance between is shortened. The atmosphere of walking outside of the school is promoted in the process. Besides, the participants make friends with many cross-age and cross-field fellows in the field.

  ”Mom, your friends are here!” the elder’s relatives in Fuxing District said to the seniors. The assistants of Chang Gung University could hear such a cordial greeting when they visit the elders. They said that the residents’ warm hospitality has always been the driving force to support their efforts. The team initially noticed the youth outflows, the low medical accessibility, and the residents’ weak awareness of diseases when the team first entered the tribe in the Fuxing District. Deep into the tribes, the team finds that there are many places in demand where sources are not able to reach and that the tribes are faced with the challenges of medical resources. For example, there are few medical institutions and few medical staff willing to serve in remote and mountainous areas, and thus the opportunity of seeking healthcare is affected. Therefore, the USR team decides to engross in the healthcare service of the aboriginal tribes.

  USR has executed the plan for more than three years and has gradually established links with local medical institutions. Especially Gao Yangwei Clinic is the closest cooperative partner of all. Dr. Kao is an aboriginal who grew up in Fuxing District. He wanted to feedback so he set up his clinic in Fuxing District and has worked for the locals for over 20 years. Dr. Kao hopes to be a needy person in his hometown, so he takes care of the overwhelming outpatient clinics every day, makes his round of visits, provides home treatment and care, and spares no effort to care for the tribe. The best timing to visit him is after the morning consultation although it is common that he works over the mealtime because of the large number of registered patients. However, out of the clinic he still passionately greets others without any tiredness. Dr. Kao is such an energetic, dynamic, and enthusiastic doctor that plays a key role in guarding the health of Fuxing District’s locals.

  When Chang Gung University started investing, they thought that the mobile screening service would be beneficial to the improvement of tribal medical care, so they introduced mobile ultrasound screening technology and cooperated with the family medicine department of Chang Gung Memorial Hospital to provide services. However, it was hard at first because of the poor experience of human testing in the past. Some tribes will refuse external units to conduct healthcare checkups on tribesmen to protect themselves. However, after visits and explanations about the purposes of screening services, residents can know more about their health conditions easier. The team also helped the residents know more about the importance of health by health education and emphasized that they would not use the collected data as research materials. After the team worked hard, they got a supportive and positive response from the Wenjian Station, and even proactively promoted the plan to attract other tribes to put forward screening needs, showing that there was a local need. Therefore, they had a thinking of expanding the plan and adding new scanning parts, and also wanted to make the school’s energy go deep into the tribe to keep the technology in Fuxing District, and then planned to train local medical staff. In the process of exchange, Dr. Gao said that he knew the aboriginal people have relatively severe liver disease, but he was too busy, it’s hard for him to spend time learning ultrasound operating skills even when he had bought that equipment. Hearing our proposal, he actively expressed the willingness to receive education and training and arranged for the teams’ education in the hope of providing a higher level of service. Moreover, after the communication with caretakers of dementia community service stand attached to Dr. Gao’s Clinic, the stands had a need of staff for long term care, so the team combined the courses and asked the trained master students to test the mobility of the elders and teach them how to do muscles exercises. The responses were overwhelming with almost 50 elders coming for the activity! After the test, it was found that many elders had problems with their knees, so the students and teachers continued to work for a better plan, looking forward to designing the most suitable service for the elders in the Fuxing District.

  In addition to the Fuxing District, the USR team from Chang Gung University also pay attention to cultivating the surrounding communities in Guishan District where it is located. Besides regular exercise classes for senior citizens, fitness and brain training courses are also introduced to enhance physical strength and prevent the elders from developing disability and dementia. The teachers and students serve in multiple villages, such as Wenqingli, Dahuali, Jingzhongli, etc. In the process of interacting with elders every week, students face different challenges. For example, some elders can only understand Taiwanese while some elders from other provinces only understand Mandarin. The students should practice and be capable of switching between two languages at any time. After getting along with each other, the elders regard the students as their grandsons and granddaughters, and they also share their life with students and bring their own snacks, which makes college students feel warm and such a deep friendship is established. There is also a 90-year-old grandfather who reports on time every week, which gives teachers and students the full sense of accomplishment.

  Chang Gung University is dedicated to guarding the locals’ health. It’s teachers and students contribute their professions and contribute to their own efforts to cultivate the community. One of the teachers in the plan said, "I am happy to join this team and obtain a different perspective!" Because of the plan, the teachers met up with many friends from the aboriginal tribe. Now if there are festivals in the tribe, they will take the initiative to invite Chang Gung’s teachers, making the teachers moved. No matter what kind of the field, the enthusiasm of teachers and students is returned by the sincerity from the locals, which is the most precious harvest. The Chang Gung University team will continue to practice the university’s social responsibilities and expand its positive influence in society. It upholds the founder’s, Mr. Wang Yongqing’s original intention of "diligence and simplicity, perfection, sustainable management, and dedication to society" so that Chang Gung University’s social care will never stop !