How is it possible to create a society that respects human life, human rights, and the individual to the utmost, but does not deny the possibility of living with a “suicidal feeling”? This paper will examine this question from the perspective of both social institutions and social norms. First, based on interviews with volunteer counselors of suicide prevention NPOs, we clarify what it means to accept the “suicidal feeling”. Second, based on Durkheim’s theory of suicide, we show that the avoidance of suicide arises from the basic framework of modern society, in which “culte de la personne, de la dignité individuelle” is a supreme value. Third, we will discuss the accelerating funding difficulties of “just listening” as numerical targets and cost-effectiveness in reducing the number and rate of suicides are being assessed in the recent de-medicalization of suicide prevention.

Since before World War II, dietary habit improvement and promotion activities been primarily carried out by housewives with nutritional science serving as the learning medium. However, what was the original intent of dietary management? And why was it necessary for housewives and women to be responsible for it? In this paper, we hypothesize that gender bias is one of the factors hindering gender-neutral and proactive dietary management awareness and dietary behavioral change as well as attempt to clarify how this bias has been constructed in the process of learning and practicing dietary habit improvement. Results suggest that nutritional science has been positioned as a field of dietary management leveraging women’s abilities and autonomy since before World War II in Japan, and that this has been made possible by lifestyle improvement promotion activities, the learning practices of those in female-dominated profession, and a Japanese-style welfare society.

Genetic information does not change throughout life and is shared among blood relatives. Patients with inherited diseases and their families face the problem of informing them of their genetic risk. In previous studies, reasons were often analyzed separately as reasons for disclosure or reasons for non-disclosure. Still, it is difficult to understand the thoughts of patients and their families in disclosure in such an experimental setting. The objective of this study is to investigate how patients and their families consider the disclosure of genetic risk. I interviewed 22 spinal and bulbar muscular atrophy (SBMA) patients and have discussed two narratives in this paper. The analysis was focused on the common ground of disclosure and non-disclosure in the survey. It was shown that the consideration in terms of accounting for the interests of the child was identical. At the same time, patients and their families showed respect for the autonomy of the child on the one hand, and avoidance of harm to the child on the other. Finally, It showed they are aware of the otherness of their children.

This study aims to describe how nursing practices during the readmission of an elderly patient were established in the emergency and critical care center of an acute care hospital. The data were collected through fieldwork and analyzed using phenomenology. We focused on one specific interaction of a readmitted patient on a ventilator asking the nurse, “Have you got used to your work?” Before this interaction, the nurse who remembered the patient’s condition “went to the emergency department to understand the patient’s latest condition,” and it was confirmed that the patient also remembered the nurse. The practice of “talking with each other about the patient” was accomplished by leading the patient through a series of events, beginning with the nurse’s response to the ventilator alarm sound and ending with the nurse’s hand-off to another nurse at the end of the shift. Nurses who engage in this practice of patient participation and remember past patients are a vital resource in ensuring the smooth transfer of readmitted patients from the emergency room to the hospital ward for inpatient care.

This article analyzes the changes in occupational prestige of medical and welfare related professions, considering informant gender and gender engaging in these occupations by using the national survey of Social Stratification and social Mobility in 1975 and 1995 and the 2016 Social Status Survey. The results of the analysis do not show evidence that the removal of gender identity from the occupational names of nurses, daycare teacher has necessarily increased the occupational prestige of these professions. In addition, the gender patterns of the evaluator and the respondent make a difference in the occupational prestige score.

These findings suggest that in-group bias and devaluation in female occupied professions (particular in nurses) will result in a gender occupational segregation structure.

The purpose of this study was to devise, with reference to evolutionary medicine, educational guidance and relaxation care that can contribute to self-care. The study design was a non-randomized controlled trial. including a non-intervention group, and assessments were made with an autonomic nerve activity index based on the Interaction Model of Client Health Behavior, the Japanese edition of the Profile of Mood States Second Edition short version, and a general self-efficacy scale. The mean age of the 86 subjects (14 men, 72 women) in the analysis was 55.5 years (standard deviation [SD]±17.1). Significant differences were seen among the four groups in Vigor-Activity (p＜0.05). HF change rate rose significantly during interventions in the instruction and care groups (p＜0.05) and continued even after intervention.

At a self-help group (SHG) for laryngeal cancer patients, participants are trained to use a substitute voice. This training initially involves a unilateral relationship; the instructor instructs, and the participants gain knowledge. Such an approach does not differ significantly from doctor-patient relationships in rehabilitation medicine. This study aimed to show the significance of providing speech training in SHG, instead of in a medical setting. The author’s observation of the instructor–participant relationships during training revealed that the substitute voice enabled the participants to share the pleasure of conversation, leading to symmetrical relationships. These symmetrical relationships, in turn, created opportunities for SHG participants to form new interpersonal bonds. By enabling the formation of such interpersonal bonds, speech training in SHG holds its significance.