Abstract
Based on a survey on children (persons) with severe motor and intellectual disabilities (hereinafter referred as “SMID") requiring medical care and who live at home (142 persons, response rate 38.3%) in Yokohama City, the conditions and issues of the use of in-home support services, especially respite care (temporary daytime support, temporary stay at a healthcare facility), and in cases of emergency, were clearly identified. 62.0% of the respondents used temporary daytime support, and 69.7% used temporary stay at a healthcare facility. Approximately 60% of the respondents considered use of such services as good , due to family merits such as reduction of nursing burden, disease recovery and convalescence, and opportunity to get away from the house, as well as improvement of the QOL of the patient. On the other hand, however, approximately half experienced being turned down for such services, for reasons such as no vacancy, unable to handle the medical care, etc. Moreover, problems regarding use method, limits on the available period and frequency, and quality of nursing, were pointed out. Temporary daytime support and temporary stay at a healthcare facility are important in the support of the continued in-home life, and their quantitative and qualitative enrichment is considered to be an urgent tasks.
