location: nan, 'Thailand 
year: 1999 source: HSRI 
title: The evaluation on social welfare services to develop the quality of life of the elderly in Thailand 
abstract:The Evaluation on Social Welfare Services to develop  the quality of Life of  the Elderly in Thailand	The study of  “the evaluation of social welfare services to develop the  quality of life of the elderly in Thailand”  has the purpose to evaluate the purpose, target, efficiency and effectiveness of the social welfare services by the government in 4 areas I.e. Homes for the elderly, the allowance, social services in the community (emphasizing the village welfare Assistance Center)  and the funeral welfare services.  The procedures in doing the research are both quantitative and qualitative research. The examples of study are the elderly in  four regions and the peripheral provinces.  The methodology in the quantitative study are the enquiries of the elderly, and the tools used in the qualitative study are the methods of interviewing, case studies, focus grouping with the elderly, observation in the village and community  concerned.  The  statistics of the study is the percentage, the mean, chi-square and the analysis of  variation.	In  this study it is found out that the context evaluation particularly the purpose of the social welfare for the elderly.  The government has the concept to manage mainly the service for the poor elderly without the relatives and supporters, by using the occupational means-test by screening them who qualified to receive the  social welfare.  The main concept of social welfare for the elderly is the concept of public assistance  except the funeral welfare services is as   the welfare services with the specific purpose in organizing the funeral for the elderly which is the welfare assisting the elderly in the community.  The result’s evaluation of the purpose of services found that the funeral welfare services is the only  welfare that giving concern the value and dignity of elderly as far as the elderly are concerned themselves and voluntary involvement of their relatives in guaranteeing for the elderly in the society, while others services  the government arranged for the elderly  has been directed through  the top-down policy	In the assessment the spending  social  resources for social welfare projects for the elderly, it is found out that the cost for Homes for the elderly is yearly high as  34,500  Baht per person, the allowance for the elderly  in  communities is 2,400 Baht  a  year (200 Baht per month in average) the cost of operation in  the village Welfare Assistance Center   in the early stages is 25,000 Baht.  While the funeral welfare the government does not allocate the budget but collects from the elderly and their families by collecting from the community’s members including the elderly 5-50  Baht per dead person.  The funeral welfare is the service concern with the dignity of the elderly and mainly counted as the cost of the community, thus the dependence on the government budget  become less.  The procedure of using the funeral welfare is flexible and adapts to the elderly’s qualification.  Thus, the potentials of social welfare services for the elderly of the organization therefore mainly depends on the strength of the community.	According to the result of this study is found out that the mechanics of the government organizations are  not so efficiency, that reflects the mechanism of the governmental organization from the evaluation of the qualified elderly, the criteria of selecting the elderly to be admitted to the Village Welfare  Assistance Center the elderly and receiving the allowance lower than the standard that will guarantee the social justice for the elderly,  lacking the suitable means-test that will lead to unfair allocation of the government budget.   The government lacks the process of  assessment, investigating, monitoring and evaluating system to accomplish the social welfare projects for the elderly efficiently, as they face the problem of disembursement process of the allowance and fund of the Village Welfare Assistance Center. The mechanism have been created according to the bureaucratic system, not by the representatives of the elderly in the community.	The result of evaluation of the effectiveness of social Welfare Services find out are the following.the operation of Homes for the elderly can respond well the the physical needs of the elderly but cannot respond spiritually.  There are enough governmental welfare Homes for the elderly, but unfair as far as the elderly with the high and medium income can be admitted to the facilities as same as the poor elderly.The system of the Allowance is divided into 3 groups as following.the poor elderly has the opportunity to get the highest allowancethe elderly with their descendants not so poor, with medium income but has good relations with the committee of the village will get the next high allowanceThe  miserable, living alone (or without relatives) elderly has the  opportunity to get the less subsistence because they are “marginal groups”  in the community.  The social welfare in terms of the allowance of the officials is intervened by the political mechanismThe  Allowance and the village Welfare Assistance Center is discentralized in terms of quantity.The official and unofficial funeral welfare services (natural groups)  responds to the elderly’s needs of the community more than other social welfare services of the government.	The  evaluation of projects of social welfare for the elderly shows that the social welfare by the government is not so functional and justice as far as the poor elderly, without relatives, cannot get access to the social welfare services because of the selection process is nepotic and unfair.  The target groups of the elderly cannot enjoy such welfare as they cannot protect their own rights as they are not participated in the management process which leads to the sustainable welfare and activities, cannot strengthen the elderly and the community for long. As far as managing the service separately i.e. handling the government welfare Homes for the elderly separately from the family and community.  Even the welfare is good but lacking the  improvement of management to develop the potentials of elderly for self-dependence, stabilization in the society, lacking the spiritual development of elderly for a long period, thus the elderly lead a “surviving-existing” rather than “well-doing” style of life.