Abstract
After the 3.11 disaster, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare suggested that social welfare facilities should open to evacuees at times of disaster, so that they can function as shelters for evacuees with disabilities. This study clarifies the attitude of social welfare facility staff regarding the acceptance of evacuees when natural disasters occur, and elucidates factors that obstruct the acceptance of such evacuees. Between long-term care facilities and facilities for the disabled, the latter showed lower willingness to accept evacuees. 65.0% of long-term care facilities and 52.5% of facilities for the disabled answered that they would take in evacuees willingly. 1.9% of the former and 9.5% of the latter answered they could not accept evacuees. The reasons for not accepting evacuees can be divided into five main categories: "inadequate acceptance mechanisms", "concerns for the quality of service for users", "concerns for the safety of the facilities", "outside the scope of the facilities" and "difficulties in evaluating the condition of evacuees". In this study, we focused on "concerns for the quality of service for users". Effective measures are necessary to minimize the disadvantages to the regular facility users in order for social welfare facilities to play an important role as welfare evacuation centers.
