The system of care for the elderly in Thailand: Capitalizing from an integrated community-based health system through reform

Thailand is facing a dramatic challenge of how to ensure good health and quality of life for its rapidly increasing number of elderly citizens. The modern health services system established a century ago has a larger proportion of public providers, but only 35–40% share public spending on health. The health services administration, its infrastructure and health policies underwent a number of reforms resulting in a system that emphasizes community-based comprehensive health services with a multisectoral approach to health. There has been remarkable concern over the health and well-being of the elderly for the last two decades, leading to the introduction of specific policies and programs, both in health and social sectors. The health service infrastructure has better coverage compared to social services, with a varying degree of integration between the two depending partly on existing resources and management in each locality. Among many other social services, there are homes for the elderly and income support for the poor elderly. However, health services and institutions for the elderly are not being created separately, but rather by adding new services and programs to the existing comprehensive and integrated system of service delivery. The changing political and socioeconomic environment provides a great opportunity to make the health and social services more responsive to the needs of the elderly, now and in the future. Decentralization and the universal health insurance policy of the new government with an emphasis on strong primary care providers will give a great push forward to the presently community-oriented nature of the extensive health service infrastructure.