Model Law on Protection and Promotion of the Quality of Life of the Elderly

Abstract

   This study aims to study the welfare protection of the elderly and the promotion of their quality of life in a comprehensive manner. From the data collected by the National Statistical Office, the first survey of the elderly population in Thailand was conducted in 1994 and continued until the survey in 2021, which is the 7th survey. Thailand has been an “aging society” for more than 10 years, with the proportion of the population aged 60 and over increasing to more than 10 percent of the total population, while the number of children and working-age people has been decreasing. Then, it will become a “complete aging society” when the population aged 60 and over is more than 20 percent of the total population in the next 1-2 years, when the population aged 60 and over is more than 28 percent of the total population.

   The study found that the Elderly Persons Act of 2003 has not yet provided for the welfare protection of the elderly, including the care, protection and promotion of the quality of life of the elderly in a comprehensive manner. In conducting the research on 5 issues, consisting of 1) Problems of the elderly receiving protection of living conditions and income from the government sector 2) Problems of the elderly receiving protection of housing welfare from the government and private sectors 3) Problems of the elderly receiving protection of medical treatment under the public health law from the government and private sectors 4) Problems of receiving protection of elderly care from descendants 5) Problems of the elderly receiving protection from the criminal justice process structure

   In order to solve the problems that have occurred, along with protecting and promoting the quality of life of the elderly, in order to prepare for the future aging society, this study and research aims to find answers, leading to the development of improvements to the law to support the protection and promotion of the quality of life of the elderly, and to determine it as a specific law that determines the criteria, methods and measures to protect the elderly so that they can access various rights and receive various welfare appropriately and effectively, by considering the determination of the criteria, methods and measures to protect and promote the quality of life of the elderly in international public law and foreign law, by determining the draft of the “Model Law on the Protection and Promotion of the Quality of Life of the Elderly”