OBJECTIVE : The purpose of this study was to clarify a current study level and future research theme,investigating many articles about mental health-related factors in hemodialysis patients.

METHODS : I conducted a systematic literature review of many studies published between 1983 and2008 that reported statistical associations between some stressors and mental health in HemodialysisPatients, using some databases (Pub Med et al.).

RESULTS : 11 articles met the selection criteria among 268 articles. Mental health-related factors wereclassified into five ; basic attribute, condition of a disease, medical history, physical factor and socialenvironment factor. χ² test, t-test, correlation and regression analysis were used to examine those factors.

CONCLUSIONS : Further study is suggested to confirm the causal relationship between hemodialysispatients’ mental health and especially human relations such as family functioning and relationship with thespouse, using structural equation modeling.

This study aimed to investigate outcomes of network systems for prevention against elder abuse by comparing the municipalities which have developed such network systems with those which have not. A self-administered questionnaire survey by mail was performed on 542 municipalities with a population over 30,000. Analyses showed that, among municipalities which have developed the network systems, following items were being carried out more frequently: education and training development of the system in a public office, utilizing forms for information management, and collaboration with care plan centers, nursing homes, and other professionals (police, layer and psychiatrist). Regarding the source of information about elder abuse, three things became clear. First. more information was obtained from welfare commissioners in municipalities which have developed early detection and community support networks. Second, more information was obtained from care managers, abusers themselves, and welfare commissioners in municipalities which have developed a network including health care and welfare services professionals. And third, more information was obtained from the municipal staff in municipalities which have developed a support network comprising other professionals. As only about half of municipalities in Japan have developed such network systems further development should be promoted.

The purpose of the present study was to clarify the aspiration levels of Caravan-mates CM who work to spread the knowledge of dementia to their society and factors affecting their aspiration levels.

Questionnaires were delivered by mail to 416 residents in northern urban area of Japan who took CM training classes aimed to spread the true knowledge of dementia through the work of the residents in the society. Analysis was performed on valid responses obtained from 212 individuals. (The attendees of the training classes are referred to as CM below.) Results were as follows:

1) Seventy-five percent of CM hoped to continue their volunteer work and about forty percent of CM the volunteers had become a lecturer,sharing the knowledge they gained from the classes to other residents of the society

2) CM who thought there were a community care meeting and the regular meeting of CM, and it cooperated with other organizations want to continue activity.

3) By multivariate logistic analysis, it was clear that the aspiration levels of volunteers were high right after they had taken their classes, and that the more they enjoyed their volunteer work, the more they hoped to continue

As a result, it is important for CM to take their volunteer work as an activity of enjoyment and an opportunity to learn. By enriching the content of the CM training classes, the aspiration levels of the attendees right after the classes are kept high. Establishing a way to organize CM work and cooperate with other organizations is also crucial.

The purpose of the present study is to clarify implications of professional support for the elderly from the perspectives of the elderly through a qualitative analysis. The qualitative analysis described the decision process in which the elderly who felt anxiety toward community living made decisions concerning the entry to the boarding home and the positive attitudes with which the residents lived with vitality in new environments of group living with some control for their own health. The interview method was semistructured. The number of participants was 14 residents. The qualitative analysis method is Kinoshita’s modified Grounded Theory Approach (M-GTA). As a result, 36 concepts, 8 sub-categories, and 4 categories were classified, Finally, the author conceptualized the relationships among the concepts, and categories. The analysis clarified the decision process in which the elderly made decisions concerning entry to the boarding home. The study implied that the strengths and positive decision-making of the residents were related to their adaptation process at the boarding home.

The aim of the present study was to elucidate factors causing care professionals to experience difficulty responding to cases of elderly abuse. A self-administered postal questionnaire was conducted on social workers, care managers and nursing staff at regional comprehensive support centers and residential care support services in a prefecture regarding their handling of elderly abuse cases. Qualitative analysis was conducted on the descriptive content of 209 responses containing free descriptions of “concern about handling abuse cases”. The factors clarified as causing care professionals to experience dif ficulty responding to cases of elderly abuse were “a nonfunctioning support system” “difficulty in determining abuse” “fragile relationship with the abuser” “lack of confidence in handling the case”, and “the mental burden of intervening in an overwhelming situation”. These factors were found to be correlated. Care professionals staff unable to find a solution suffered from loss of self-confidence and exhaustion. In order to reduce the mental burden on care professionals, the implementation of support systems such as acquisition of coping techniques and systematic cooperation is necessary

The purpose of this study was to examine the present status of the cooperation between clinics and visiting nursing stations in Tohoku area, and the recognition of visiting nursing, needs of utilization and the state of delivering potential visiting nursing services in clinic physicians and managers of visiting nursing stations in order to consider PR activity to increase users of visiting nursing.

About 80 % of the clinic physicians and the managers of visiting nursing stations answered that mutual cooperation was very good or good, and there was no significant difference between them concerning the answers. However, the clinic physicians needed 24 hour systems and clients’ and these families’ information, while the managers of stations considered that a function to continue clients’ lives at home was important, showing a difference in answers between them. The potential services that clinic physicians wanted to use had already been delivered or could be delivered by visiting stations.

These results demonstrate that visiting nursing stations should know what clinic physicians request to visiting nursing stations, strengthen the cooperation and develop new visiting nursing services and PR activity about possible services to clinic physicians.

The present study was conducted to examine volunteer activities in communities designed to increase awareness of dementia and their future directions. We selected twenty-one registered volunteer workers of local organizations in two cities involved in raising awareness of dementia, conducted a semi-structured interview regarding: 1) their activities and 2) future directions, and performed a qualitative analysis of the results using an inductive approach.

1) Their volunteer activities included: “increasing self-awareness”, “group activities to raise people’s awareness of dementia”, “activities associated with their daily job and what they had learned at their workplaces”, and “community activities to support the elderly”. 2) Their plans and intentions regarding future directions were as follows: “doing what they can now”, “promoting collaboration with other volunteers”, “helping improve the volunteer organization”, “raising people’s awareness of dementia”, “helping dementia patients and their families”, and “creating a comfor table living environment for everyone”.

Most volunteer workers apply their work experience and what they have learned at their workplaces to their volunteer activities, while improving their awareness of dementia. In addition to helping dementia patients as much as possible by doing what they can, they also have a long-term vision to create a comfortable living environment for everyone.

The objective of the present study was to consider points of support through correlation between the Basic Checklist and evaluation items from the monitoring records of Kanagawa Prefecture. The survey was administered to a total of 65 elderly individuals requiring care (8 men, 57 women). In addition, 17 items (representing daily activities) taken from the monitoring records of Kanagawa Prefecture were used as a graded assessment of support in order to analyze relationships. The results showed a rank correlation for 10 of the 17 daily activities (eating, incontinence, dressing and undressing (outer wear), dressing and undressing (trousers/shorts), sitting down with both feet on the floor, standing up, walking, transferring, transfer method indoors and transfer method outdoors) and 5 of the 6 areas of the preventive care program (motor function, improvement of nutrition, housebound , depression, memory loss).

The above results suggested that, in the decline of activities, motor function and mouse function, the possibility of not improving nutrition, going out once a week, risk of memory loss and risk of depression by measuring functional status of elderly individuals requiring care. And incontinence care suggested a clue improvement of housebound elderly and improvement of care for depression.

The purpose of this study was to investigate care-sharing among multiple family members of older adults. We have interviewed 8 primary family caregivers of older adults who use home visit nursing. Data were analyzed qualitatively, and similar contents were grouped to develop categories. Cases with good family cooperation and those with limited cooperation were compared. Actual care-sharing varied among the cases; some secondary caregivers share multiple aspects of care and spend much time for care upon the request of the primary caregiver, while others take responsibility in specific time or content of care and assist the primary caregiver on a regular basis. Cases with good cooperation also had several common characteristics: the whole family is motivated to provide care for the older adult, the primary caregiver is mainly authorized to decide how they share care and the secondar y caregiver answers the primar y caregiver’s request, the family shares attachment to the care recipient and understanding regarding care situation. Professional assistance may be possible in such areas as common understanding regarding care situation or active communication among the family, in order to promote effective care-sharing among multiple family members.