Abstract:
The purposes of this research were to study the level of needs for the social welfare services for the elderly in the Sai Thai District, to compare the level of needs of the elderly of different background, and to propose guidelines to improve the provision of welfare for the elderly. The sample group consisted of 262 elders who were residing at Sai Thai District, Krabi Province. Questionnaires were used as tools to collect the data, they were divided into 3 parts- social insurance services, public welfare services, and social welfare services. The researcher also interviewed 4 main informants who were involved in the social welfare services. The statistics employed in analyzing the collected data were frequency, percentage, arithmetic means, S.D., and t-test F-test, and One Way Anova.
The results of the study revealed :
1. The level of the needs for social welfare service for the elderly was found to be very high. The aspects of services were ranked from most needed to least needed as follows : public welfare services, social welfare services, and social insurance services.
2. When comparing the needs of the elderly of different background, it was found that the elderly of different age, marital status, level of education and occupation had the same level of needs for social welfare. However, the elderly of different gender and monthly income had a significant difference in the needs for social welfare at the level of .05.
3. Guidelines to improve the welfare services for the elderly in Sai Thai District were as follows :
3.1 For Policy Makers - The Ministry of Social and Security Development of Human Resources should assist the District with the following: preparation of the people before entering old age, accommodation for the elderly, services, training about saving money, and additional income.
3.2 For Local Units : the Sai Thai Sub - District Administrative Organization must provide the elderly in 4 areas of services : income, health and food, recreation, and social services.
3.3 For the Private Sectors - The elderly in Sai Thai formed the Elderly Club and needed financial assistance for their activities.
3.4 Other guidelines to develop the quality of life of the elderly include the promotion of using the elderlys local wisdom to acquire extra income for them and transferring the elderlys local wisdom to the next generation.