Bangkok plans to give elderly a helping hand

Elderly citizens in Thailand’s capital may be getting more help from the government as renewed efforts focus on helping them stay at home. The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) says it will draft an action plan to improve senior citizens’ quality of life. As the world’s population collectively gets older, Bangkok is no exception. Over 22 per cent of its population consists of elderly persons, making it increasingly necessary to give them a helping hand.

According to The Bangkok Post, Governor Chadchart Sittipunt presided over a ceremony by the BMA, which endorsed an action plan for senior citizens over the years 2023-2027. Noting that the capital has officially become an ageing society, with some districts seeing as many as 32 per cent of their residents falling into the elderly category. Chadchart says there are many elderly who are bedridden with some suffering from Alzheimer’s. Those patients, he says, are sometimes completely alone with no family to help care for them.

“Cases in different districts can vary. We have to prepare programmes for ageing, healthcare and transport. They have to include various organisations and effective action plans. Good criteria are needed.”

Such programmes that he mentioned include helping elderly persons with their daily lives, such as training classes to keep them technologically updated, the addition of more parks within walking distance from their homes, and free home-care beds for such bedridden patients.

A lecturer at the Institute for Population and Social Research at Mahidol University, said surveys show that elderly people prefer living in their own homes over nursing home facilities. The lecturer also echoed the need for community facilities to help elderly persons have access to much-needed care close to their homes. Another lecturer at the same institute noted that Thailand will have over 20 million senior citizens within the next 20 years. The staggering number only adds concern to the Thai Gerontology Research and Development Institute’s predictions that the country’s elderly population will see 28 per cent of its people being over the age of 65 by 2039.