Abstract
Disorders of ingestion and swallowing are dangerous and may lead to potentially fatal conditions, such as aspiration pneumonia. Few nursing homes make an effort to cope with ingestion and swallowing disturbances, probably because of lack of personnel for rehabilitation and equipment for diagnosis and therapy. It is impossible at present therefore to raise the level of ADL of residents in nursing homes in Japan The purpose of this communication is to describe activities in our institution as an example of how physicians, nurses, care workers, speech therapists, and physical and occupational therapists are grappling with ingestion and swallowing disturbances in a nursing home. In addition, I will describe in detail the roles and functions of individual specialist groups in our institution in order to provide you with information that may be applicable to other institutions.
