Classification of Isolated Deaths among Community-living Elderly Documented by Community Comprehensive Support Centers

Surveys of Nursing Staff

Abstract

  The objective of the present study was to obtain suggestions for the activities of Community Comprehensive Support Centers (hereafter, Centers) concerning isolated death by classifying the cases of isolated death among elderly people living alone in the community documented by Centers. A questionnaire survey was conducted on one nursing staff each at all 249 Centers in Prefecture A between April and June 2014, and a total of 81 responses (response rate, 32.5%) were obtained. An interview survey was then conducted on 10 respondents who complied with the request. On the questionnaire survey, 51 Centers (63.0%) responded that they had received consultations regarding isolated death. These consultations were most often made by “social workers” (n=31; 60.8%), and were also made by “neighbors” (n=20; 39.2%) and “deliverymen for private delivery companies” (n=13; 25.5%), among others. A total of 27 cases of isolated death were obtained from the questionnaire and interview surveys, and they were classified as “death occurring at least a week earlier”, “death occurring after mimamori^*”, and “death occurring after end-of-life care”. These findings indicate that the activities performed by Centers must include gradual mimamori toward elderly people, promotion of awareness regarding initial responses at the time of encountering a case of isolated death, and the clarification of roles in mimamori toward elderly people as well as grief care and empowerment following death for the people involved.

^*mimamori : Maintaining distance by considering the feelings or circumstances of elderly people, confirming the safety of elderly people by observation and/or measurement, and understanding the needs of elderly people by cooperating with people and institutions in the community