The purpose of this study is to clarify how the role of administrative registered dietitians (ARD) impacts the enhancement of the integrated community care systems (ICCS) and to define if they are hired to engage in ICCS, by undertaking surveys at prefectural offices, public health centers and city offices. The results show that only a few prefectures and cities actually placed registered dietitians at care insurance or elderly welfare departments to engage in ICCS. These results revealed that the engagement of ARD in ICCS at 7 prefectural offices was 15.9%, 8% at 24 public healthcare centers and 19.9% at 190 cities. It showed that when engaged, ARD in the public health centers worked on creating cooperation tools between medical institutions and nursing care facilities, understanding social resources, educating dietitians, insuring dietitians’ position and supporting dietetic environment maintenances such as food distribution services. ARD in city offices worked on visiting residents to provide dietary information, holding dietetic workshops, promoting malnutrition and establishing dietary guidance systems linked to medical treatment for the prevention of serious conditions. The survey also indicated that cities expected ARD in public health centers to share information regarding concrete methods, taking leaderships and developing organizational frameworks. These results confirmed that there is a need for ARD in cities, to play an active role in operating preventive long-term care and insurance services to enrich ICCS. We believe that it is necessary for ARD, who work at public health centers, to understand the actual conditions, prepare nutritional care systems, use social resources and develop human resources.
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