Social Welfare for Capability of Female Elders Live Alone: Nakornpathom Disclosed

Abstract

This research aims to study the mechanism of capability approach of female elders who live alone to become active aging, and the practical baseline of affiliated network partners who are responsible for this matter in Nakornpathom. The samples are 21 elders and 20 people from the elderly network. The research equipment are in-depth interviews, focus group interviews, and content analysis. The results demonstrate there are three components involving the capability approach. Firstly, role models of the elders propel social welfare for competency building. Secondly, the elderly network, including the elderly school emphasizes the inside capability building for a growth mindset development. Moreover, the elderly club conducts systematic management among network partners contributing to teamwork. Thirdly, the governmental network decentralizes its authority to a local network to collaboratively formulate the provincial development strategy by applying the capability approach index through each level of a development plan. The following problems are found: 5 elders are inaccessible to some dimensions of the welfare; 8 elders are considered as vulnerable in several aspects due to their mindset and context. For example, they are excluded from development projects, the elderly school does not motivate the elders to participate in hard and soft skill development activities, the elderly clubs do not have leaders who manage network of all districts, and the governmental network lacks an integrated database for indicating a circumstance of the situation.

There are four guidelines for the elderly network to contribute to the capability approach. First, the elders should receive a development of a growth mindset. Second, the elderly school should emphasize the development of an inside capability approach by having a curriculum that develops hard and soft skills. Third, the elderly club of all districts should follow systematic network management. Lastly, the governmental network should decentralize its authority to all affiliated stakeholders to collaboratively formulate the female elderly-capacity-oriented welfare.