Basic long-term care training for informal caregivers by the EPA returnees and local trainers in Depok City, West Java, Indonesia

Indonesia's elderly population is increasing annually and is estimated to reach 28.8 million or 11.34% by 2020, with a life expectancy of 71.1 years. Significant population growth may be accompanied by issues affecting aspects of peoples' lives and their families and also communities. Training of informal caregivers in developing countries is required for providing long-term care (LTC) to elderly people so that they can stay at home as long as possible. Our objectives were to enable caregivers in the communities to engage in LTC for the elderly, utilize Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) caregiver returnees as trainers for knowledge transfer from Japan, and compare skills and knowledge of EPA returnees and local trainers. Total 150 informal caregivers engaged in the training, which consisted 50 hours basic material. The caregiver's knowledge was compared before and after training, and EPA returnees and local trainers were observed during their training sessions. While the training was effective to improve informal caregiver's understanding of LTC, it was insufficient for improving their overall ability to provide LTC services to older persons. Knowledge delivered was almost similar between EPA returnees and local trainers.