Social welfare needs and policies for elderly people in Thailand: A case study in Pitsanulok community

Abstract

The objectives of this study are to study the level of satisfaction of older people with social welfare policy, to study the problems of social welfare policy, and to study public policy guidelines for social welfare in a community in Pitsanulok province. We did quantitative and qualitative methods for 3,701 questionnaires, interviews of 29 participants and a focus group of 15 experts to discuss policy guidelines. From the study, we found that older people were satisfied with social welfare policy at a moderate level such as social security, knowledge and education. However, the problems of social welfare policy such as the monthly payment assistance is not enough in the current economy, government's lack of budget, and not allowing government agencies to take care of older people, so local government should create a department for service and support older people and also train government officers to have more knowledge about how to take care of older people. In addition, the government should train more healthy volunteers in communities to take care of and help to transfer older people to hospitals.