Analyzed of community conditions for enabling to older persons learning

Abstract

                This research aimed to study the community that facilities older person learning and to analyze strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of older persons learning in Patan Subdistrict, Khuntal district, Chiang Rai Province. Key informants were 10 older persons and 10 Subdistrict Municipality Officers. A focus group was used to collect data with 2 sets of semi-structured questions, for older person and Subdistrict Municipality Officers, about older person learning in a community as well as strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of older person learning. SWOT analysis was used to analyze strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of old person learning. The results found that there were 8 strengths, 2 weaknesses, 4 opportunities, and 2 threats of older person learning in a community which were (1) strengths: a support of the management team of Sub-district Municipality, school for senior establishment, a team work of Sub-district Municipality officers, having a focal person in managing activities in an school for senior, having an operational plan of the school for senior, committees of the school for senior, a pick-up service from their home to the school for senior, and a location of where the community is located nearby the district office, (2) weaknesses: overloaded work of Subdistrict Municipality officers, insufficient technology and communication devices, (3) opportunities: the participation and cooperation of older person in all aspects, an inside and outside network, volunteers caring older person, and budget resources from outside a community, and lastly (4) threats: no cooperation from leaders in a community, and the restrictions of budget and funding of Local Administrative Organization. All of strengths and opportunity factors to support older person learning activities and protect weakness/treats factor. This factor from SWOT analysis can to find guidelines to run an older person learning activities properly, to meet the local and authentic context of the community.