Preparing for a full-fledged aged society
As Thailand’s society ages, its citizens must take steps to prepare for the future – financially, physically and mentally
Old age is inevitable. But are enough people preparing themselves — or even aware that they should prepare — to make sure they can live comfortably and healthy when they enter their senior years? Thailand’s status as an ageing society is the issue of the moment, and it is estimated that in 2021 the country will become a completely aged society, meaning that over 20% of the population will be over 60 years old, which will affect the nationwide economy and quality of life. Without preparation, older Thais will most likely have difficult years ahead.
To help more Thai people become aware of this change in population and to prepare them before reaching the Big 60, the Pfizer Thailand Foundation is collaborating with the Kenan Institute Asia to promote the Pfizer Healthy Ageing Society project that aims to educate and encourage behavioural shifts in the pre-senior group (45-59 years old) to ensure they can enter seniority with a healthy mind, soul and adequate savings.
“Now, we’re focusing our attention on the pre-senior group. If we were to focus on senior citizens alone, at their age, the opportunity to earn income or think of savings and investment would be slim. Their health, too, wouldn’t be able to improve in time. But with pre-seniors, they at least have years to prevent problems and gain knowledge to get themselves prepared,” said Supaporn Mahaphontrakoon, manager of technical team at Kenan Institute Asia.
As part of the project, a panel of health academics and practitioners recently headed to Ubon Ratchathani province to conduct workshops, educating and training change agents — working with pre-seniors who have strong ties within their communities. These change agents will then influence and create awareness, setting examples for their neighbours to follow. Some of them are teachers, healthcare volunteers, district officers and members of local senior clubs.
The main focus of the workshop lies on three key principles: kai fit, jit dee and mee aom — good physical health, strong mental health and adequate savings — which are deemed the main pillars that may guarantee a quality living. Some of the subjects taught included financial and wellness literacy, non-communicable diseases, exercises and healthy diet.
Currently, the three pillars are in quite a worrying state, experts said. But perhaps the most worrying of all concerns financial matters. According to a study by the Kenan Institute Asia, 66% of pre-seniors have debt, while 42% don’t earn enough to save and 34% have no financial planning for their retirement years.
A small amount of people are aware of the cost of ageing, Supaporn said. Some people may have pensions and a subsistence allowance from the government, which often is not enough to cover daily expenses and medical bills for themselves and dependent family members, like grandchildren who may live with them.
“People still mostly plan to rely on their children. If they don’t have that, they feel hopeless,” said Gaysorn Prachumdang, 54, a workshop participant who is a director of a local tambon hospital in Ubon Ratchathani. Her community of 2,000 people now have over 300 senior citizens living among them.
Gaysorn said that there are yearly seminars conducted to educate senior citizens on how to take care of their physical and mental health, but not really on finance-related topics.
“But, at least, I feel the situation is still better in rural communities as people are closer to one another and people do help out when the going gets tough. In big cities, people don’t interact and you don’t even know your own neighbour,” said Gaysorn.
For another participant Yupeeporn Meekaew, 56, who is a public health officer in her district, said that, aside from Pfizer’s, there doesn’t seem to be any other programme that targets pre-senior citizens like her.
In her community of over 100 households, she reported that almost all of them have at least one senior citizen living in their house. “More women than men,” Yupeeporn said, as most of the men passed away from sickness incurred from unhealthy diets and drinking. She says women tend to pay more attention and are more inclined to follow suggestions.
“Some senior people tend not to listen to us as they think they know better. So, in trying to encourage them to do anything or to change their habits, some tricks are required to achieve that. They can be as stubborn as little kids,” said Yupeeporn.
The Pfizer Healthy Ageing Society project is currently in its second year of a three-year operation that focuses on key areas in Bang Khun Tian and Klong Toey districts in Bangkok, and now in Muang and Warin Chamrap districts of Ubon Ratchathani. It aims to promote wellness literacy and quality of life improvements.
At the conclusion of the three-year project, Dr Kittima Sriwatanakul, senior project manager at Pfizer Thailand Foundation, insisted that the team will take lessons they learn from this project to see in which direction it could expand in the future.
“We are now waiting for the results from these four districts to see, if we’re going to take a step forward, which direction we will go for and who we will partner with,” said Kittima. “And we do have plans to engage with the government in policy forums to keep the development sustainable in the long run.”
As Pfizer is a pharmaceutical company, some may wonder why they would choose to engage in wellness literacy within an ageing society. The idea seems conflicting that a pharmaceutical company would want to prevent people from getting sick.
“We can’t allow people to just get sick and use our medicine. Prevention is better than cure, definitely. When people reach a certain age, when their bodies turn weary, get sick and are no longer able to function as well as their younger days, this is when we come in with good medicine for everyone to use,” said Siriwan Chuenchomsakun, trustee and secretary of Pfizer Thailand Foundation.
“Our commitment, as a company, also focuses on research and development to ensure everyone can be healthy. I think it rather goes hand-in-hand for us to use our knowledge to support and ensure a healthy, productive nation.”