1996 Volume 47 Issue 11 Pages 1109-1117
In the rapidly ageing society of Japan, welfare services must be urgently improved for the aged at home, especially those who need care and support. Dwelling environment and support services are considered to be the fundamental problems, which will have to be dealt with from the viewpoint of both those offering care and support and receiving them. In order to help provide improved dwelling environment and support services for the aged receiving care at home, I investigated the circumstances and the requirements of the aged with homehelp services at home and homehelps in Miyazaki Prefecture. In this paper, the results of a survey of the aged receiving homehelp services will be reported.
1) Among the one-person households, the rate of those dwelling in rented houses is comparatively high. There is only limited public support given to the aged on housing. As they lose health, they tend to confine themselves in their rooms, which then look more like nursing rooms. The poorer they were in health, the lower were their evaluations. It was also noted that those living in rented houses evaluated their environment low. It was found that they have fear and feel uneasy about passages as well as places where water is used. In one-person househoulds, utility space tend to be considered inadequate by the resident. Demands for the improvement of dwelling environment came mostly from those living in rented houses. As a result, there is an urgent need to improve the dwelling environment of the aged in poor health and those living alone in the rented houses.
2) The aged receive various types of homehelps, including care and support in household work as well as consultation on mental state. Males living alone and those aged couples in poor health feel uneasy carrying out basic household work while homehelps are not available. The requirements or expectations for the future of the aged may be summarized in two types of dependence; dependence on their children and dependence on the public supports of welfare services and institutions. Those living alone express strong desire to be accommodated in the institutions for the aged. They depend largely on homehelp, and need more frequent homehelp.
