การเข้าถึงสิทธิและสวัสดิการสังคมของผู้สูงวัยกลุ่มชาติพันธุ์ในภาคเหนือตอนบน

Abstract

This qualitative research was conducted in three phases. The first phase involved a documentary research relating to access to the rights and social welfare of the ethnic elderly in the Upper Northern region. The second phase was concerned with field study in the target areas to collect the data by observations, in-depth interviews, and focus group discussion. The third phase was to formulate policy-wise recommendations about access to the rights and social welfare of the ethnic elderly.The purposive sampling method was applied to select 150 ethnic elderly individuals from five elderly groups, with each group being represented by 30 members. The research instruments were a documentary research record, an in-depth interview, and a focus group discussion record. The content analysis was adopted to analyze the data and the results were presented descriptively. The research results are summarized as follows. 1. On access to the rights and social welfare of the ethnic elderly, it was concluded that social insurance was to create life security and protection of employees. Public assistance was a free welfare for the needy due to their being invalid, socially underprivileged, and homeless. Social service was a service system in response to fundamental needs of the public. Assistance from the civic sector was a social welfare provision conducted mainly by civil groups. 2. Policy-wise recommendations on access to the rights and social welfare of the ethnic elderly are as follows. 1) Social welfare provision should be based on the needs of the elderly in their respective areas. Care and assistance to the elderly should be the responsibility of local and community organizations rather than organizations at the national level. 2) Community-based care should be promoted with an integration of both physical and mental health services, which are necessary and a future trend. 3) Family and community should be encouraged to play a central role in elderly care as important local facilities and institutions are required, e.g., municipality, tambon administration organizations, temples, and schools. 4) Traditional and community empowerment should be promoted to create communal care, which is an important foundation for providing social welfare systems in the Thai context and is appropriate to actual problems of the elderly. 5) Healthcare service provision should be provided as it is a basic service provision. It was revealed that the elderly in municipal areas required this service the most, and concerned agencies should conduct a survey and issue elderly cards for them to claim their medical rights. Furthermore, the focus should be on the services most elderly are able to access to, particularly physical rehabilitation of the elderly in communities. 6) For the welfare on asset and life security, the private sector should be encouraged to provide this kind of service to the elderly by providing them convenience and facilities in public buildings, public transportation vehicles, and public areas. 7) The state should encourage the establishment of elderly groups and networks in order to share information and activities. The establishment would provide the elderly an opportunity to form into groups and design activities suitable for their ages, such as, religious, occupational and excursion activities. 8) Community empowerment measures should be promoted, especially sufficiency economy, in an attempt to create more jobs in rural areas, solve poverty problems, and encourage the elderly and family members to live together to prevent the problem of the elderly being left alone. 9) The subsistence allowance allocation methods should be revised with the participation of communities and the elderly, so that they could be more fair and just.