In this paper, we conducted a survey of four care managers who practice in rural villages, with the aim of identifying welfare livelihood issues in rural villages and clarifying difficulties and challenges in consultative support. Semi-structured interviews were conducted, and qualitative analysis was performed. The results indicated that care managers in rural villages face the following difficulties: “smoothly providing necessary support”, “supporting households which face various problems”, “having no choice but to follow procedure”, and “facing problems arising from distance and discrepancies within the system”. Furthermore, “cultural issues”, “practical issues”, and “institutional issues” were identified as challenges in providing consultative support in rural areas.

  We examined the challenges in local government initiatives concerning abuse of persons with disabilities by their caregivers through a literature review of Japanese documents. Ten categories of the challenges were identified and organized into four layers that focused on the areas where challenges existed. Using this four-layered structure as an analytical framework, we examined with reference to materials such as practical reports by local governments and knowledge in the field of elder abuse and drew the following conclusions. In municipalities, challenges include sharing the goals of preventing abuse and defending the rights of persons with disabilities within the organization and the community, achieving comprehensive and continuous support and organizational reform for that purpose, securing social work expertise and allocating necessary personnel for the same, managing support inside and outside the organization, and enhancing prevention and early detection initiatives with the participation of residents. In prefectures, enhancing municipal support according to the actual situation in the region is a challenge. Future research should attempt to clarify the details of the expertise required from municipal officials and create a practical model for local governments.