2020 Volume 61 Issue 3 Pages 72-86
Since the 1990s, the problem of poverty has increased because of employment instability and aging. However, the social security system has lost focus of its original object. In addition, the social scientific object recognition of medical social workers appears to be declining as the discharge support work expands due to medical system reforms.
In this study, we clarified the actual conditions of persons eligible for discharge support by employing quantitative case studies in order to define the current target of medical welfare. Many of the clients experienced poverty due to low income and social isolation problems. These were regulated at work rather than caused by illness. Life problems are formed in multiple layers as defined by lower social layers. If individuals also suffer illness, their lives are further reduced in a vicious cycle of illness and poverty. The problem of poverty due to a low income, which is inevitably created by the social hierarchy of modern society, is a central concern for medical welfare.
