Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate, using the time study method, the issues that need to be
addressed in order for child and family support centers （here in after referred to as centers） to fulfil
their role of providing comprehensive and integrated support in children and family counseling. The
participants were 15 social workers and counselors working at four centers in the metropolitan area. The
type of work was full-time（ including concurrent work） for 8, part-time for 3, and unanswered for 4; the
occupation was social worker for 9, psychologist for 3, other for 1, and unanswered for 2; and the years
of work was from less than 1 year to 11 years （unanswered for 6） . Questionnaires were distributed to
each participant to record their tasks they performed on a working day. They were asked to indicate
the time spent on each task. The survey period was four weeks（ 20 working days） from 18 November
to 15 December 2019. The results of this study indicated that the most time-consuming tasks at the
center were: 1） filling out the results of consultation/counseling, 2） participating in training/supervision,
3） consultation /counseling （including telephone consultations and visits to clients’ homes）, 4） seminars
for parents, and 5） conferences. Telephone consultation/counseling lasted 15 minutes, while consultation
/counseling at the centers and home visits lasted about 70 minutes on average. Of these, public health
centers and public child consultation centers were the most cooperative organizations. These results
suggest that developing systems to provide outreach support for parents and children, publicizing the
center’s role in other consultation organizations—such as monitoring and assessment of parents and
children—and promoting cooperation with schools or nursery schools are the issues in which centers play
a key role in addressing through child welfare services, as comprehensive and professional consultation
organizations.
https://ror.org/021anqv82 
