抄録
1. The purpose of the paper is to examine what the function of home-help service should be as a part of personal social services for the aged and the handicapped, how they are presently organized, and then what need to be improved for the future. 2. Needs for home-help are analyzed through the surveys on the conditions of the lives of the aged and the handicapped. 3. The above analysis shows that the following two aspects should be noted as the basic characteristics of home-help needs. (1) Needs for care and support vary both in the contents and in the quantity (frequency and amount), according to the living condition of the person. Also, it must be rememberd that there are individual need of various kinds exist besides the basic and common need for help in daily household tasks. (2) The handicapped have special needs for help alongside the process of ADL training for independent living. They also need special and often very urgent emergency needs for care and support on and after the death of the family member living in the same household. 4. The important factors to constitute the need for home help are; (1) types and degrees of handicaps (2) life stage (3) life history (4) condition of the family, including the marital status, job, income, children, and family and kinships relations, (5) housing condition and neighboring environment, and (6) social relationships with neighbors and other friends 5. The home-help service aims at the extention of the period of independent living of the aged and the handicapped in the community, and the prevention of the unnecessary hospitalization and entrance to the institution. No need to say that the basic needs of life including economic security, housing and medical care should be met. Home-help service should be provided in close relation to other personal social services like short-term stay in institutions, daycare, meal-on-wheel service, access to various self-help devices, visiting nurse and other medical services at home. The social worker's counselling and advice are indispensable in the development of close network of those services in the community. 6. Toward the better provision of home help service in the future, it is necessary to have ; (1) much closer network of whole personal social services, which will certainly increase the effectiveness of home help, and (2) the large scale extention of the service and its more flexible administration, together with the establishment of sound system of coordination, including necessary scheme for the education and training of both helpers and coordinators. (3) Good cooperation between responsible local government and voluntary groups and citizens.
