Thai municipality pioneers community care for elderly residents
Bueng Yitho is expanding day care, screening and residential support for older people while sharing lessons with Yugawara in Japan.
- The Bueng Yitho municipality is developing a comprehensive community-based care system for its elderly residents, which integrates home support, day care, health screening, and residential services.
- A central part of this initiative is the establishment of Thailand's first municipally operated day care center for seniors, offering rehabilitation and social activities.
- The municipality's approach was heavily influenced by Japan's elderly-care system, developed through research and a formal partnership with the Japanese town of Yugawara.
- To address diverse needs, the program also includes a dedicated health screening center and is creating tailored long-term residential care and nursing homes.
As Thailand becomes an ageing society, Bueng Yitho municipality in central Thailand is building a community-based care system for older residents, combining home support, day care, health screening and residential services.
The municipality, about 40 kilometres north of Bangkok, has around 34,000 residents, including roughly 6,400 people aged 60 or above. Across Thailand, people in that age group accounted for more than 20 per cent of the population in 2023.
Bueng Yitho began dealing seriously with the issue in 2012. Mayor Rungsarn Nantakawong said the scale of the challenge became clearer during repeated support visits to slum communities, where the rising number of older residents showed the need for stronger assistance.
In Thailand, people who need nursing support are still cared for mainly by family members at home. Certified paid volunteers also help with nursing care and daily life, but the country’s public nursing-care system and service infrastructure remain limited.
To help address that gap, Bueng Yitho opened the country’s first municipally operated day care centre for older people in 2019. Users pay 300 baht, or about 1,490 yen, per day, including transport. Officials said the centre receives eight to 10 users daily.
Rehabilitation is a key part of the service. The centre has eight physical therapists, and some of its recreational equipment was developed after studying examples from Japan.
The facility was partly shaped by research into Japan’s elderly-care experience. The mayor, municipal staff and nurses made several visits to nursing-care facilities in the town of Yugawara in Kanagawa Prefecture, eastern Japan, to observe operations first-hand.
Bueng Yitho is carrying out its programmes with partners including Yugawara and Nogezaka-Glocal, a nonprofit organisation in Yokohama, the prefecture’s capital.
After older residents asked for a place where they could spend time during the day, municipal officials introduced day care and related services as a supplement to the community’s home-based care model.
A 54-year-old woman said she visits the centre once a week because she has no one to talk to at home during the day. Smiling, she said the centre provides meals that are “good for health” and offers “opportunities to communicate with other people.”
The municipality has also set up a health screening centre to encourage more residents to receive regular medical check-ups. To increase men’s participation in community activities, it has opened a venue where older adults can gather for drinks.
Other support is being tailored to individual needs, including long-term residential care facilities and nursing homes with full-time nurses on site.
A research report found that more than 60 per cent of elderly-care facilities in Thailand are concentrated in the suburbs of Bangkok, raising concerns that other regions may face shortages in the future.
Rie Komahashi, deputy director of the Thailand office of the Japan International Cooperation Agency, praised Bueng Yitho’s approach. She said the municipality has “developed a unique style of support for the elderly centred on community care while looking to Japan as a reference.”
Bueng Yitho and Yugawara signed a cooperation agreement in 2019, with both municipalities stressing mutual learning in their exchanges.
Yugawara has also drawn on Thailand’s experience. In 2025, the Japanese town introduced a paid volunteer system staffed by senior citizens, aiming to help older people gain a stronger sense of purpose.
“Through these exchanges, the idea of supporting elderly people across the entire community is beginning to take root,” an official in Yugawara’s regional policy section said.
Rapid population ageing is a shared challenge for many Asian countries. Interest is growing not only in caregiving know-how, but also in health promotion and dementia care.
In Thailand, 39 local governments have formed a network to exchange information on elderly care, with hopes of expanding the initiative to neighbouring countries.
[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]
