On September 10 last year, exactly on World Suicide Prevention Day, Khom Khong-ngoen, 67, doused his body and wooden hut with petrol before setting himself alight. The ensuing blaze consumed him and his hut.
ILLUSTRATION: JAKKRIT UTTAYANANON
A suicide note was found near the debris of his shack in Ron Phibun village, Nakhon Si Thammarat's Ron Phibun district. It said:
"My grandchildren don't want me to stay with them. They are disgusted with me. I don't want to ask for anything else. If I have made mistakes, I apologise. No one will have to be bothered with my life any more. The cremation is done ..."
Khom is not the only suicidal person on record. Statistics from the Mental Health Department show that the risk of suicide among elderly Thais is now at its highest level, especially among those between 80 and 84 years of age.
A study by the department shows that suicide among ageing Thais is mostly caused by hopelessness and loneliness. They develop such feelings because of lack of support from relatives and access to social services, especially when they are suffering from illnesses.
Khom's suicide shows how deeply depressed old people can be. Not all old people can rely on consistent family care when they are helpless. This group is likely to suffer from poverty, physical hardship, neglect, sickness and disability, loneliness, humiliation and fear. For them, old age will become something to be dreaded and endured.
And their number in Thailand is rising.
Professors in demography Pramote Prasartkul and Patama Vapattanawong of the Institute for Population and Social Research, Mahidol University, found in their study on recent changes in Thai demographic structure that the sharp decline in fertility and longer life expectancy during the past 20 years have caused rapid ageing of the population in Thai society.
Thailand could be described as an ageing country since those over 65 account for more than 8% of its population.
According to UN definition, countries where more than 10% of the population are older than 60, or more than 7% of the population are older than 65, are considered ageing societies. They will become "aged" societies when more than 20% of the population are older than 60, and those older than 65 account higher than 14%.
The National Economic and Social Development Board (NESDB), the government's policy think tank, has forecast that the percentage of people older than 60 living in Thailand would rise from 7.36% of the population in 1990 to 25.12% by 2030.
In fact, Thailand became an ageing society in 2004 when more than 10% of its population was older than 60. It will become an aged society in 2024 when those older than 60 are predicted to account for more than 20% of the total population.
As Thailand is getting more and more grey, welfare and care for the elderly will soon be a burden on the government, society and their families, which Pramote and Pattama noted in their article titled Transitional Point of the Thai Population.
Thailand is not ready to take care of its ageing population that's lately increasing at a fast pace, said Pramote. Social service facilities for old people are limited, while state allowance could not help old people in this country live a decent life.
At present, the monthly allowance for those aged between 60 and 69 is 600 baht, while it is 700 baht for those between 70 and 79, 800 baht for those between 80 and 89, and 1,000 baht for those over 90.
In the meantime, the modernising and urbanising Thai society has reduced the ability of families to cater to the needs of old people, especially their need for care and companionship.
Indeed, family care for elderly people has gradually become a myth.
Jantararat Hemvej, an interior designer and construction project consultant, is well aware of that. As she has seen more and more news reports on old people being neglected by their children and relatives, she said she doesn't expect to be cared for by her children or family members when she gets old.
Jantararat, 39, and her husband had agreed not to have a child because she could not find enough good reasons to have one.
''No one should expect oneself to be a dependent of anyone, even his or her own spouse. To depend on our spouse is to make ourselves our spouse's burden. Then, how could we say that we really love each other?
''Being independent will help us uphold our dignity and remain respectable,'' she said.
She hopes, however, that by the time she is old and ailing, Thailand will have enough nursing homes or homes that cater to the needs of the elderly people.
Nevertheless, if none of the existing facilities can meet her needs, she will set up her own home for the elderly, Jantararat added.
The demand for facilities and services for old people is on the rise in Thailand, especially in Bangkok, said Wimolrat Amornmorakot, manager and shareholder of Master Senior Home, a nursing home sheltering frail elderly people and recuperating patients located in Bangkok's Thawi Watthana district.
Formerly a nurse by profession, Wimolrat and her friends set up Master Senior Home late last year, believing that working people in Bangkok needed such services and the demand for their services would keep growing.
Wimolrat said she thought about the nursing home business after witnessing people around her going through tough times trying to juggle between their other obligations and the obligation to care for their frail, ageing parents at home.
''Some of my former co-workers had to wake up super early to take care of their bed-ridden parents before waking up their children, getting them breakfast, driving them to school, and then rushing through Bangkok traffic to our office. No doubt, they often turned up at the office quite late and got poor performance assessments from our boss,'' she said.
Bangkok is a big crowded city. Most working people have to travel through congested traffic from their homes in the suburbs to their offices in the city centre. Many leave their ageing parents at home on their own while they are away during the day for 10 to 12 hours.
Some can afford to hire housemaids to be with their parents during those hours, but most maids have not been trained to care for ailing old people. Once ageing parents develop chronic diseases and certain disabilities, they will need more complicated health care at home, and these maids are not able to handle such caring tasks.
At the same time, long-term services for old people with chronic illnesses in hospitals are not affordable for low-income and middle-income earners. Here, nursing home services with more affordable prices could help fill the gap, said Wimolrat.
Wimolrat's nursing home, a two-storey house in a suburban housing estate in the Phutthamonthon area, can accommodate up to 20 elderly people and recuperating patients. Services offered include food, personal care, in-house nurse, weekly visits by physiotherapists and monthly visits by medical doctors, and costs 14,000 to more than 25,000 baht per month.
All her clients, mostly between 54 and 90, are supported by their grown-up children who visit them about once a week.
Wimolrat said she has never had a client who lives by himself or herself without any support from their children or family members, though she foresees more of such clients in the future.
For old people not supported by families who wish to end up in nursing homes, they will have to work on insurance schemes and make arrangements on how insurance companies can continue to pay for their nursing home services until the last day of their lives, suggested Wimolrat.
Pramote and Pattama said that Thailand needs to build up three aspects of security for old people: security in terms of income, health, and housing. Policy measures for the pension system and savings among old people need to be in place along with wellness policies and policies on long-term accommodation for old people.
Information on ageing societies should be disseminated to the public so that people of all ages will be able to understand each other, they urged.
Thailand will not only see a rise in the number of elderly people, but their numbers will be further boosted as more foreigners choose to spend their retirement years in the Kingdom.
According to the Eleventh National Development Plan (2012-2016), the number of old people in the world will rise to 82 million by 2016. Many will migrate to Thailand due to cheaper health and medical care services.
Subsequently, culture will diversify as the structure of production will change from labour-intensive to knowledge- and technology-based. Public health expenditure will increase at the expense of other investments, the agency forecasted.
The challenge ahead is huge, warned Pramote.
After retirement at 60, Thais will continue to live another 23 years on average. During those 23 years, ageing people will spend one or two years living as frail old people with a certain level of disabilities. The disabled period of ageing men on average is one year, while the disabled period of ageing women is about 1.5 years.
''Since the social service system for old people in Thailand has not been fully developed, individual Thais will have to get themselves ready to handle their own old-ageing period with insufficient support from government agencies,'' he said.
