The purpose of this study is to clear the "Internal adjustment" factors and a state of the physical and mental health on welfare institution worker of Korea. As the results of factor analysis we had four factors related to the "Internal adjustment" which are named evaluation on surroundings and treatment for working, relationship with users, contentment on working, confidences on working. The result of this study showed clearly negative inclination of older ages on these four factors comparing with young ages. As far as physical health there was not significances between generations on physical health, but young ages has higher mental health problems than older ages and there was significance. The results of this study indicates that it needs betterments like increasing of man power and salary, rationalization of systems etc. to promote the "Internal adjustment" on workers who have worked long-term and mental health for young workers who worked short-term and entered newly.

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The purpose of this study was to clarify conditions of mental health of nurses and female office workers. Questionnaire survey was performed with 388 nurses in three general hospitals and 214 female office workers in three general facilities. Thirty items of the general health Questionnaire (GHQ-30 Japanese edition) were used for evaluating their mental health. The questionnaire includes the basic attributes, five internal factors and two external factors. As a result, the score of the GHQ of nurses was significantly higher than of office workers. Among 6 factors of the GHQ, sleep disturbance, anxiety and dysphoria, suicidal depression were significantly higher with nurses. According to the basic attributes, the score of the GHQ was higher in nurses who were unmarried or lived alone. The nurses were in the poor mental health conditions compared to the office workers. Factors influencing on the GHQ were self-esteem, self-regulation tendency, satisfaction to the work, life style, vulnerability to sickness in the nurses and self-esteem and life style in the office workers.

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The current situation concerning the availability of information on developmental retardation and methods of child-raising for parents of mentally handicapped children was investigated with the aim of establishing guidelines for the establishment of an appropriate system of guidance offered to parents of mentally handicapped children by professionals. The subjects were parents of children attending a special school for mentally handicapped children or a high school for mentally handicapped children in the Tokachi district of Hokkaido and parents of children less than 20 years of age who graduated from the high school for mentally handicapped children. Questionnaires that could be answered by the multiple choice method or by free description were sent to the subjects (n=251). Responses were received from 107 of the 251 subjects (response rate of 42.6%). The items investigated were 1) family situation, 2) situation concerning the child, 3) explanation concerning retarded development of the child, and 4) explanation concerning child-raising methods. The results of the survey showed that professional welfare workers should make efforts to understand the problems faced by each family with a mentally handicapped child and should offer appropriate assistance and try to provide as much useful information as possible. Thus, in order to be able to provide appropriate support to parents of handicapped children, professional welfare workers must be trained in the future to be able to recognize the needs of the parents and to be able to offer appropriate assistance and to provide necessary information.

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This study was conducted to obtain suggestions for future support by determining the current state of acceptance of volunteers at Japanese public health centers, etc., and elucidating their special characteristics according to the type of institution. A survey was conducted targeting 999 prefectural public health centers and branches, cabinetdesignated city, core city, and other designated city, special-ward public health centers and health centers, and valid replies were analyzed (590 institutions; valid reply rate : 59.1%). They were divided according to institution type into prefectural and designated-city and analyzed regarding institutions and programs that accepted volunteers, volunteer characteristics, and content of support. Among institutions accepting volunteers, 65.7% were prefectural and 34.3% were designated-city, representing 79.1% of the prefectural type and 86.3% of the designated- city type. Volunteers were on a relatively small scale in the former, in mental and intractable disease programs, but a relatively large scale in the latter, in mother-child and adult-elderly programs. Support content was slightly better provided by the designated-city than the prefectural type, but only 30% of the institutions were performing 5 of the 6 support items. Moreover, 12.2% of the prefectural-type public health centers were not training volunteers, versus 22.8% of the designated-city type, and institutions registering volunteers were 29.2% of the former, versus 35.4% of the latter. Urgent tasks in the prefectural type are improving support for volunteers who can deal with mental and intractable diseases, and in the designated-city type, improving volunteer support so many community residents can participate. Planning and coordinating functions of health centers must be utilized so volunteers can perform activities rooted in the community.

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The purpose of this study is to clarify the characteristic of the old people who hopes for group home. Subjects for the study are 1855 elderly people, aged 65 and over living in the community. Out of the eligible subjects, 1663 (89.6%) participated in the study. The investigation was carried out using detainment method by the district welfare. Within these respondents, 1323 persons who ADL was self supporting were used for the analysis. Results got are as follows. 1) The woman tended to hope for 2.17 times group home further than the man. 2) The frequency which participated in the community work tended to hope for 2.38 times in comparison with the person under it on the person over moon 4 times. These results indicate that group home that the woman is easy to live and that to interchange with the local community is easy is desired.

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This study clarified a relationship between the length of nursery care (under 11 hours vs. over 11 hours) and child development. The subjects were children and caregivers who used child day care or child night care in authorized nursery. Caregivers were asked to fill the questionnaire on raring environment in 1988. Child care professionals asked to evaluate development with the objective tool for each child in 2000. 551 caregiver- child matching data of both years were used for analysis. The results were as follows ; 1. Child development wasn't significantly related to the length of nursery care under service of good quality. 2. Child development was significantly related to raring environment as well as many past studies. 3. It was difficult for caregivers who used over 11 hours child care services in nursery to have contact to society and advisers of child rearing. 4. Further research must be done to promote evidence- based services for higher quality child care.

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The aim of this study was to determine the correlations between basic attributes and lifestyles of elderly people living in a rural community in Aomori Prefecture, Japan. The subjects were 600 elderly people (65 years of age or older) living in Hiranai Town, Aomori Prefecture. Elderly people who were not able to fill in the questionnaire due to dementia and/or physical handicaps were excluded. The items surveyed were gender, age, presence of a spouse, family composition, currently receiving or not receiving treatment as an outpatient, self-assessment of physical fitness, and lifestyle.Responses were received from 597 (99.5%)of the 600 subjects, and the data in the questionnaires were used for analysis. The results showed that the lifestyles of the subjects (aspects of lifestyle such as nutrition, meals, consumption of alcohol, hours of sleep, cigarette smoking, bowel movement, activities on holidays, and exercise) were relatively good. The results also showed that lifestyle was related to factors such as gender, age and regional characteristics. Thus, selection of a lifestyle that is in accordance with current health status is thought to be most appropriate for promotion of health. The results also suggest the necessity for each person to take responsibility for their own health and establish a healthy lifestyle with advice and support from nurses in public health centers.

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