Providing Public Services for the Elderly in Chamai Municipality, Thung Song District, Nakhon Si Thammarat Province

Abstract

Providing public services to answer people’s needs consists of 5 components: equality, punctuality, adequacy, continuity, and progress. The organizations that enable these services are 1) public sector, 2) local administrative organizations, 3) public sector and local administrative organizations, and 4) private sector. Local administrative organization is a self-governing organization of the local people that possesses the legal power and duty to provide public services for local area people either assigned by the government or lawfully self-operated to fulfill people’s needs. The Chamai Elderly Resort, Thung Song District, Nakhon Si Thammarat Province is an example of public-private service collaboration between Chamai Municipality, which is affiliated with the local administrative organization, and Southern College of Technology (SCT), a private educational institution. All activities aimed at improving quality of life of the elderly people who were prepared and voluntarily participated in various interest-based learning activities including recreational, occupation and income-generating, health promotion, technology update, and visiting-with-friends activities. Forty elderly participants joined the activities every Sunday from 10.00 a.m. to 3.00 p.m.for 8 times during 2 months. The results demonstrated that the elderly participants have a better quality of life either physically or mentally as well as socially. This has urged Chamai Municipality to continue this project since a number of elderly people in the local area needed to join the activities organized by the Chamai Elderly Resort.