Legal Measures for Health Care Protection and Welfare Providing for the Elderly of Local Government Organizations in Nakhon Ratchasima Province

Abstract

          The research purposes were to study: (1) the legal measures for the elderly care of the local government organizations in Nakhon Ratchasima Province; and (2) the problems in enforcing laws in the elderly care of the local government organizations in Nakhon Ratchasima Province. This research was the Qualitative research the key informants were 72 administrators; Operations officer involved in caring for the qualitative research the key informants were 72 administrators, operations officers involved in caring for the elderly, and the elderly group members. The research instrument was a structured interview form. The data analyzed by factor analysis. For the document research, the data were collected from legal information in relation to issue in question, and were processed with the descriptive and content analyses.

           The research findings were below.

1. The caring for the elderly had rights guaranteed in the Constitution of the Kingdom of Thailand, B.E. 2560, Section 27, the third paragraph, and Section 48, the second paragraph; as for the state policy regarding the elderly, Section 71, the third paragraph, the local government organizations had the authority and duty to take care of and provide the public services to the elderly in accordance with the Constitution of the Kingdom of Thailand, B.E. 2560, Section 250, the first paragraph; and the determination of rights for the elderly were in accordance with the Elderly Act, B.E. 2546, amended No. 2, B.E. 2553, and No. 3, B.E. 2560, Section 11.
2. For the related laws there were problems in protecting and caring for the elderly; the elderly health care management was still limited and inconsistent with the protection and care of the elderly, and improper participation of elderly and local administrative organization to elder care.
3. For this reason, if there were law amendments to comply with the operational context relating to elderly by local administrative organization, elderly’s quality of life promotion would be appropriate and sustainable.