Research on Innovation Empowerment to Improve the Quality of Life of the Elderly into the Aging Society in the Next Decade by using Communities and Schools as a Base

Abstract

The research objectives were to: 1) study the community context and the element concerning the development of the elderly's quality of life into next decade of aging society, 2) create innovations to empower their life quality by using communities and educational institutions as a base, 3) study management approach to improve their life quality. The sample for the study of community context and components on life quality development was 440 elderly people. The sample groups included 150 people for the study of creating innovation in empowerment activities, 30 people for evaluating website innovation and knowledge bank, and 30 people for establishing the management guidelines. The research instruments were community context surveys, quality assessment questionnaire, interview form, and structural interviews. The statistics for analyzing data was frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation.

The results were as follows: 1) The community context and elements concerning elderly's life quality development in Thonburi District communities showed that most of the communities were quite crowded. This district was an old conservative town with historical sites, cultural learning resources and sources of local wisdom. The development of the elderly's life quality included 6 parts: physical and mental health, food and nutrition, life insurance and life security, participation in society, knowledge management with wisdom transfer, and role of the elderly in the family. 2) The innovation in the development of the elderly's life quality included (1) organizing 4 activities to empower the elderly to enter the aging society, and (2) creating an innovative website including knowledge bank for the specified activities. 3) Regarding the management approaches, guidelines were established upon jointly planning of Thonburi District Office, Community Development Department, Community Health Development Department and Dhonburi Rajabhat University to organize activities to empower the development of the mind, body and community environment.