GUIDELINE FOR SOCIAL WELFARE ARRANGEMENT OF LOCAL ADMINISTRATIVE ORGANISATIONS TO SUPPORT THE AGING SOCIETY

Abstract

          Thailand is currently becoming the complete aging society resulting from the change in population structure. As a result, the number of elderly is increasing every year. Preparation to support aging society is thus important, especially preparation in social welfare arrangement for elderly which is so crucial that all organisations have to be aware of the importance of such preparation. This paper aims to study social welfare arrangement related to the elderly opreated by local administrative organizations. This is to acknowledge the problems and suggest appropriate guidelines to respond to preparation to deal with aging society in community. Most social welfare arrangement for elderly by local administrative organisations focuses an attention on elderly’s quality of life improvement in terms of physical and mental aspects. In this way, social welfare of recreation and public health are the benefits which local administrative organizations provide to the elderly most. However, problems of lack of budget, lack of elderly database connected to local administrative organisations, problematic operational regulations, and lack of integration of organisations related to elderly are still the obstacles to implement such social welfare arrangement. For this reason, guideline for social welfare arrangement for elderly of local administrative organisations should have guideline setting in budget management separately for social welfare arrangement for elderly, elderly database creation that local administrative organisations can access, and setting in guideline for cooperation between public and private sectors for operation associating with the elderly. Then, social welfare arrangement for elderly by local administrative organisations can assist and improve elderly’s quality of life more effectively.