State Social Welfare Management for an Aging Society of Local Administration: A Case Study of Surat Thani Municipality, Surat Thani Province

Abstract

The research article aims to 1) study the government welfare provision to support the aging society, 2) inspect the factors affecting the government welfare provision to support the aging society, and 3) seek the guidelines for the government welfare provision to support the aging society of Surat Thani municipality in Surat Thani Province. This study adopted the mixed methods of quantitative and qualitative approaches. The sample group used in the study included 1) 392 elderly people in Surat Thani munici pality with the data collection from questionnaires, and 2) 5 executives and officials of the Social Welfare Division, Surat Thani municipality with the data collection from in-depth interviews. The data analysis adopted the standard deviation for quantitative approach and the content analysis for qualitative method.

The results proved that the government welfare provision to support the aging society in Surat Thani municipality as a whole was at mode rate level ( = 3.12). The factors affecting the government welfare provision to support the aging society consisted of 4 aspects, namely 1) Government policy and support, 2) Policy advocacy of local administration, 3) Operational resources and 4) Participation of elderly in guidelines for the government welfare provision to support the aging society of Surat Thani municipality, Surat Thani Province.

The author suggests that the laws on welfare provision of local administrative organizations for the elderly should be clarified. The local government should follow an effective concrete strategy for the elderly and promote the cooperation between local government and private agencies to strengthen the government welfare affair to support the aging society.