Changing perspectives on elderly care in Thailand : An explorative study

Abstract:

Introduction: Thailand is experiencing a demographic change with an increasing elderly population. The care of elderly is mainly within the family, however changes that comes with modernization is leading to an increase in nursing homes and changing values.

Purpose: The purpose is to explore and understand four professional social workers - with academic and practical experience, point of view on  how elderly care in Thailand is changing and what role social workers have in that change. The study aims to explore how the social workers perceive how elderly care and social work is developing in Thailand.

Method: Semi structured interviews with four social workers were conducted after convenience sampling and snowball sampling. I have used an inductive approach when researching since the purpose in the beginning was general and later narrowed down.

Theory: The theory used in this thesis is the system theory.Results: The results were divided into three main themes answering each research question. The social workers’ believed elderly’s role is changing and that depending on their children to provide for them has been replaced with elderly now taking care of themselves. The social workers’ working within the elderly field is few and their role can be administrative but also educating, empowering the elderly.

Discussion: Social workers’ role as educators is important since the elderly reforms are new and may be unknown for some Thai elderly. The government has taken another path, focusing on home health care rather than expanding nursing homes. This sector is mainly private and fee based and expanding without demands on regulations and registration.