Abstract
Objective: The local government of Kawasaki city developed a policy to take action for the welfare recipients and low-income people who need health care support called “Kawasaki City Welfare Program and Self-Support Program”. From 2013, through one of the six base plans, or “Health Support Plan”, one public health nurse was placed at each section in charge of public assistance of city welfare offices. This article was written to describe the initiative for health management support for the protected people.
Contents: Two challenges have been covered. The first one is the increase in medical expenses due to the increase in the elderly population, and the second is the disparities in health status due to economic disparities. The focus was the cases of the elderly who receive less case worker visits, as well as the importance of health support for them and the prevention of lifestyle-related diseases. The actions taken were 1) providing individual support, 2) preventing lifestyle-related disease (diabetes prevention), 3) rising rates of health check-ups, 4) adjusting medical assistance costs. By collaborating with the public health nurses of the nine city welfare offices, case workers, and other health care related supporters, Kawasaki city is implementing health support management for the elderly with trial and error.
Conclusions: In the field of welfare, all workers involved in health care support should guide welfare recipients towards self-reliance. There needs to be a strategy implemented for the welfare recipients to voluntarily seek health care for themselves. The Japanese government sets a guideline for the tasks, direction, and evaluation index of the health management support. Even after discontinuing welfare for the recipients, one remaining issue exists; that is to discuss a mechanism involving concerned sections and authorities so as to construct a regional welfare system where they can continue to receive sufficient health care support and community support.
