Housing Governance for Sustainable Livelihood of the Elderly in an Age - Friendly Community: A Case Study of Camillian Social Centre in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception Community, Chanthaburi

Abstract

BACKGROUND: As Thailand becomes an aging society, the search for suitable housing for the elderly requires a new public management system that is not only the responsibility of the government. One option is provided by the work of the Camillians, a non - profit organization. In the case of Chanthaburi Province, Thailand, the Camillians have been operating elderly nursing homes for a long time under the support of the Roman Catholic Church community. Therefore, with the aim of developing the work of the elderly nursing homes of the said private sector to broaden its roles, the researcher studied the factors affecting the management system of the Camillians’ elderly nursing homes. However, in order to expand such work more widely in Thai society, how should the model of the housing management system in the elderly friendly community be developed for sustainable living?

OBJECTIVES: The objectives of this study were to study the performance of a service system and factors affecting the housing governance for the elderly at the Camillian Social Center, Chanthaburi and to propose a model for the housing governance for the sustainable livelihood of the elderly in an age - friendly community in the context of Thai culture.

METHODS: Research methodology was used to study transdisciplinary approaches across disciplines by using a cross - disciplinary integrated research process based on quantitative and qualitative studies in chronological order. The key research techniques were document research, observation, lessons learned, and in - depth interviews with two Camillian executives, 10 operational staff, and 37 aged residents of the aforementioned center.

RESULTS: It was found that the factors affecting the management system of the Camillian Social Center were the community contexts that were friendly to the living of the elderly, including the religious community of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception or Roman Catholic Church, Chanthaburi. This was found to be a complex factor that was not a physical space dimension, but a religious relationship dimension, cultural capital, social capital, metagovernance service system, and social entrepreneurship model. In addition, the proposed management system model that should be applied in accordance with Thai culture should be considered from important factors, including the Thai community context that would be friendly to the livelihood of the elderly’s social capital in Thai society, Buddhist’style metagovernance, standard service system, and social entrepreneurship model. Moreover, it was found that the appropriate form for good management should be one of social entrepreneurship.

CONCLUSIONS: The important factors affecting the implementation of the nursing home management system were as follows: The community context should be friendly to the livelihood of the elderly, have cultural capital, social capital, metagovernance, service system, and a social entrepreneurship model. Moreover, the policy recommendations were the Camillians should apply the concept of Buddhist’style metagovernance in accordance with Thai culture. The Ministry of Social Development should also study the guidelines to support the expenses of the elderly to reside in a nursing home in the future. Likewise, social enterprise groups should come together as a cooperative mechanism.