Innovations adopted to raise quality of life of Thai elderly

BANGKOK, January 15 (TNA) - The Thai Ministry of Social Development and Human Security has adopted innovations, based on the government's Thailand 4.0 Policy, to maintain and raise the quality of life of the elderly in the country. Thanakorn Promsuwan, Director General of the ministry's Department of Older Persons, told journalists of the update on Monday, noting that innovations are being applied to the 24-hour development of the Thai elderly in five areas, including socio-economic dimensions, public health, the environment and innovative technologies. For innovative technologies, Thanakorn said those on financial knowledge, healthcare, food and daily facilities are being resorted to maintain and raise the quality of life of the Thai elderly. To support the move, the senior official revealed that her department is implementing monthly activities throughout this year, with events marking the official launch of the 2018 roadmap set to be held at The Mall Shopping Center Ngamwongwan on the outskirts of Bangkok during January 31-February 1. According to the senior official, activities in January, for instance, are focused on applying innovations to create value-added wisdom to raise income for the elderly and to promote public awareness on and to publicize of the wisdom of the elderly, while those in February will be focused on providing the elderly with knowledge on financial innovations and promoting a amicable share in which the more wealthy elderly will be persuaded to present their monthly allowances, given by the government as a welfare benefit, to the poor elderly to mark the St. Valentine's Day and those in March will be focused on promoting good health initiatives among the elderly. Activities in April will then be emphasized on introducing the online GOLD Application for the elderly, in which a variety of their rights will be publicized marking the National Elderly Day in the middle of the month, while those in May will be emphasized on introducing elderly-friendly locations and those in June will be emphasized on publicizing healthy food and drink menu for the elderly. Activities in July will be focused on household innovative facilities for the elderly, while those in August will be focused on the elderly clothes and fashion and a review of all activities from early 2018. The senior official acknowledged that the 2018 roadmap is aimed to prepare Thailand for a world elderly society in the near future, as there are now about 10.8 million aging population in the country, most of whom have difficulties in travels and about 3,000 of whom are over 100 years old. (TNA)