Public Assistance Act and Treatment of the Mentally Ill in Japan during the 1950s

: Focusing on the Role of the Bureau of Social Affairs of the Ministry of Health and Welfare

Abstract

This paper analyzes the approach of the Social Affairs Bureau of the Ministry of Health and Welfare in the 1950s to the treatment of the mentally ill hospitalized under application of the public assistance law and establishment of emergency relief facilities. It examines the policy formation process related to the Public Assistance Act and the treatment of patients by the Social Affairs Bureau. As results show, it became clear that the establishment of the emergency relief facilities in 1958 was included in the treatment policy for the mentally ill hospitalized under the application of the public assistance law. The Social Affairs Bureau, which had always paid attention to the application of the public assistance law, had consistently sought said policy since the beginning of the 1950s. Moreover, the emergency relief facility was established by the social bureau as after care for discharged patients. In the 1950s, to get rid of the situation where the Public Assistance Act was in charge of the mentally ill’s medical care, the Bureau developed two policies : expansion of hospitalization for the mentally ill requiring medical treatment and creation of public assistance facilities for patients in the chronic phase who did not require medical treatment.