Abstract
The objective is to elucidate the home assistance activities conducted by nurses, care workers, rehabilitation ("rehab") workers, and support counselors at geriatric health services facilities ("roken"). Three facilities where the director has clearly indicated an institutional policy for home assistance and where there is systematic institutional involvement in home assistance were selected for the study. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a total of 12 participants, one of each profession from each of the three facilities, and qualitative data was subsequently analyzed with an inductive approach. Workers of each occupation collaborated and prepared their client mentally and physically to continue living at home with his/her family, and built trust with the family. They also constantly assessed the relationship between the family and client as well as the family's condition after the client joined the facility, while also providing the family with comprehensive support in decision-making. Workers of each occupation acted characteristically for their respective positions: counselors explained the role of "roken" as well as the content of assistance provided by "roken", and prompted continuous decision-making based on each family's situation, nurses explained the content of optimal care for the clients to be living at home with family members as well as subsequent results to the family; care workers provided clients with support on their desire to return home, and family members with assistance for active home care; rehab workers determined the rehab objectives with consideration for both improvement in ADL of clients and reduction in the burden of care on family members.
