A survey on the Current Status of Consultation Support Services for Persons and Children with Neurocognitive Disorders in Japan

Abstract

  In order to understand the current status of support for persons and children with neurocognitive disorders, a questionnaire survey was conducted. The questionnaires were distributed to designated specific consultation support service providers and designated consultation support service providers for children with disabilities in Tokyo and Shiga prefecture. In both communities, the percentage of persons and children with neurocognitive disorders among their service users was less than 5 %, and approximately one quarter of them were undiagnosed. Also, providers with no consultation experience for these persons or children accounted for approximately half of the responded providers, which indicates these consultations are concentrated in certain providers. There were, however, some cases where services were not used despite the existing needs. The reported difficulties included “self- and/or family membersʼawareness of the neurocognitive disorders,” “mismatch between needs and services,” “relationships with other users and care staff members,” and“lack of service providers equipped to deal with persons and children with these disorders.”
  As consideration and measures to overcome these difficulties, “consideration for communication”, “utilization of specialized institutions such as medical institutions” and “information sharing with related organizations”, etc. were mentioned. The development and expansion of a system that encourages providers with these support experiences to build up successful example cases with other local providers to improve the skills of consultation support specialists are needed.