This study clarified a relationship between social interaction by using "Index of Social Interaction" and mortality after five years. The subjects were all 60 years of age and older who lived in a farming community near major urban centers in Japan (n=918). 153 subjects were deceased within five years period after survey. The contents of the questionnaire were "Index of Social Interaction (i.e. : Independence, Social curiosity, Interaction, Feeling of safety, Participation in the society), Activities of daily living, Age, Sex, Education, and Disease history. The results were as follows; 1) Young age, independence of mobility or daily living were significantly related to the low mortality after five years. 2) Among less than 75 years of age, "Reading books", "Having active role", and "Feeling being important" for male, and "Life style motivation", "Active approach", and "Feeling being important" for female were significantly related to lower mortality. 3) Among 75 years of age and older, "Reading books" for male, and "Reading newspapers", "Having active role", "Participation in neighborhood affairs", "Life style motivation", and "Active approach" for female were significantly related to lower mortality. 4) By logistic regression analysis adjusted for age, sex, length of education, mobility, activities of daily living, and disease revealed that odds of mortality was significantly high at low score of "Independence" for all adjusted models. "Social Curiosity", "Social Interaction" and "Participation in the Society" were significantly related to low mortality for some adjusted models. These suggested that active social interaction effected reduced mortality. Further research is needed on this cohort to develop a more effective scale of social interaction which can predict precisely the mortality related to socio-psychological factors.

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Interprofessional (interdisciplinary) collaboration (IC) is becoming increasingly important to provide high quality of care (quality effectiveness) and to decrease the health care cost (cost effectiveness). However, the concept has been variously and vaguely defined, and confused with other terms such as network and teamwork. This article articulates the definition, models and evaluations of IC by reviewing the literatures on IC in mainly U. S. A. and U. K. The four forms of IC (cooffering, cooperating, consaltation and teamwork) are identified, and they are classified by two dimensions ; 'the degree of formality' and 'the degree of interaction', which are factors of IC. Using network's common elements (interdependence, autonomy, diversity, exchanging resource), IC may be defined as 'a developmental process in order to achieve common purposes with professional interdependence and exchange of resources, which is working on the network of diverse and autonomous professionals'. The three model of IC (multi-, inter-, trans-model) are characterized by 'degree of collaboration', 'degree of role release' and 'hierarchy'. The advantages, defects, barriers and necessary conditions of IC are described.

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One of the greatest traditional social work values is the maximization of client self-determination. In ageing society, frail or disabled older adults are increasing who are incompetent in decision-making. There are some issues related to the question of self-determination of people who have less ability of self-determination. Keeping one's perspective is especially important for supporting them. The strengths perspective allows one to help discover, embellish, explore and exploit clients' strengths and resources to achieve goals. The purpose of this study is to examine the process of decision-making on the strengths perspective. The first section of this study presents the issue of respect for self-determination. The second section delineates the importance of helping views on supporting decision-making of people with intellectual disability. The third section shows the meaning of strength, the significance of social work practice on the strengths perspective and its relation with social constructionism. Finally, supporting the decision-making with the elderly, people with handicaps on strengths perspective, is explored. Then the importance of supporting the decision-making on inter-dependence is pointed out.

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Epilepsy, one of the most misunderstood and stigmatizing disorders, has a significant impact on people's psychological development, and causes a lot of emotional stress, such as fear, anxiety, shame, and depression, undermining many areas of their social lives. In addition, social stigma and discrimination clearly restrict their equal rights and opportunities. Despite these psychological and social problems, very little attention has been paid to this population in the social work literature. The particular focus of this paper is a one year study of a Systematic Eclectic Approach (SEA), which combines client-centered therapy, the life model and cognitive-behavioral therapy with a young adult epileptic client who experienced severe emotional stress since he was hospitalized. Specific techniques and worker's roles of SEA, such as a supportive counseling which emphasizes acceptance and empathy, a mediating role between the client and his environment, and assertiveness training are discussed in each stage with some case illustrations. The paper also explores the possibilities of combining skills in casework, group work, community organization and social action in order to meet the client's needs and goals. From this study, I believe that the use of SEA for this population has been effective and helping this young adult epileptic client deal with his emotional stress and become more self-sufficient in the society.

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Since 1990, many organized network activities for the prevention of child abuse and neglect have been developed in Japan. The purpose of this article is to analize and characterize each network organization. 17 organizations were surveyed in Japan by interviewing and mailing a questionnaire from February 1997 to December 1998. The questionnanire included the motivation to establish the network, history of the network, constituent members of the network, contents of activities of the network, financial situation and an evaluation of network activity. We divided these organizations into voluntary, government-supported, voluntary plus government-supported, hospital-based and research-oriented networks, and analized three types, voluntary, government-supported and voluntary plus government-supported. Voluntary networks were characterized with keywords as follows; "self-help" and "advocacy". Government-supported networks were characterized with the keyword; "problem-solving". We found that government-supported networks needed more contact with other local goverments. In addition, voluntary-based and gorvenment-supported network organizations should cooperate more closely with each other in the future.

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In this study, the correlations between free-time activities undertaken by mothers of children attending day nurseries or kindergartens and personal attributes of the mothers (age, educational background, type of household, employment, household income) were investigated in order to obtain an index that could be used in establishing future policies for assistance in child-raising. The subjects surveyed were 625 mothers of children attending day nurseries or kindergartens in Hokkaido. Questionnaires were sent to day nurseries and kindergartens, where they were distributed to mothers. The items surveyed were basic personal attributes (current number of children, mother's age, mother's educational background, employment, household income, type of household) and activities undertaken by the mothers in their free time. The results revealed that both the number and quality of activities undertaken by mothers in and around the home were insufficient. It was also shown that the activities undertaken by mothers in their free time are correlated to the mother's age, educational background, whether or not the mother is working, household income, and type of household.

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Although a large number of studies have been carried out on the recognition of the role of specialists in Child Protective Services, little has been attempted on the opinions of those who, benefit from and carry the weight of such services, notably the general public. The reason for this is the difficulty of drawing conclusions as limited evidence are available on matters such as the reporting and investigating of child maltreatment cases. This research was carried out by means of a questionnaire targeted at those who are currently actively involved in child-rearing, with the aim of examining and clarifying the consciousness and behaviour of parents concerning the legal responsibility to report and investigate child maltreatment cases. The survey was conducted from 7 July to 8 October 1998. Four municipalities, Mitaka-city, Kodaira-city, Katsushikaward and Kawaguchi-city, cooperated. The total number of questionnaire sheets distributed was 1997. The sheets were distributed to parents who brought their children aged 18 months to 3 years, for Child Health Examination. The participants returned the sheets to us directly. 711 responses were received, the rate of collection being 35.6%. The key points are as follows: 1. 75.6% of the respondents were unaware of the individual's legal responsibility to report child maltreatment cases and 66.8% were unaware of the legal responsibility of Child Guidance Centers to investigate these cases. 2. 69.0% of the respondents agreed that there was a legal responsibility to investigate provided that there were enough grounds for suspicion. This figure dropped to 55.4% regarding the responsibility of the public to report child maltreatment cases. 42.7% agreed that reports should only be submitted when there was reliable proof of abuse. 3. 79.6% of the respondents agreed with the notion that physical punishment has a psychological effect on the child. On the other hand, 47% agreed that physical punishment can be used as a means of enforcing child discipline and 49.2% agreed that physical punishment carried out in a loving and supportive atmosphere is acceptable. It can be concluded, from this that National and Prefectural Governments need to promote a campaign using various media, with the aim of educating the general public on their legal duty to report child maltreatment cases so that they can be investigated by the appropriate official body. However in Japan, where the idea that what happens within the family is an intensely private affair, the investigation of such cases could be seen as a gross invasion of privacy. Therefore I would like to strongly emphasize the need for further discussion regarding the reasoning behind, the propriety and the implementation of such investigative procedures.

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The purpose of this study is to examine the staffs viewpoints about caring children in institutions for children in Japan based on the findings of research which relate to staff in institutions and suggest problems in practice. The author conducted research of staff in instituions for children with number of samples as 1282. Ill institutions out of 126 answered. Ill institutions are about 22.0% of all institutions for children in Japan. The author used the principal component analysis and analysis of variance (ANOVA) In the research, factors analysis with varimax was used in order to create the measures for staff's viewpoints about caring children. Factor 1 is behavior which is suspected of abuse. Factor 2 is attitude respecting children's right. Factor 3 is management of children's money. Factor 4 is setting children's duty. Factor 5 is management of children's possessions. Furthermore, Staff who have read the Convention on the Rights of the Child feel necessity of items of factor 2. The author thinks that it is important to provide abused children with therapeutic care in institutions. But some children in care are reabused by Paternalistic care or physical punishment. In Japan, we do not have the agency where children in care can complain about care in instituions. We need measures to prevent abuse in institutions.

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This paper aims at presenting the issues regarding the aged welfare policy in Korea and its direction, by analyzing the trend of the family support in addressing the problem of the aged in Japan and Korea since 1990, and explaining the special features of its background. The results of the comparative analysis is as follows: 1) The 1990's problem of the aged in Korea, mainly comes from malfunctioning of family support, not from increasing in number in the aged, as there has been a rabid change in family pattern. 2) Due to the change in the family structure and its function, it is necessary to develop both the financial support and the care together to alleviate the problems of the aged in Korea. 3) Even though the care for the aged is based on the family, the Korea welfare policy for the aged has been mainly focused on the development of financial support. So, there are many limitations in family care. As a result of this research, it is believed that Korea welfare policy for the aged should have more emphasis on the expansion in number of recipients of care to alleviate the family's burden.

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During the past two decades, more people in the U.S. chose to have various alternative arrangements regarding court-appointed guardianship. The disadvantages of guardianship are (1)wards have no rooms to make their own decisions, (2)the approving process requires too much time and money, and (3)guardians have so much power over their wards that they can put their interests ahead of those of the wards. Durable power of attorney could minimize the financial and physical risks for the principal since power of attorney would be usually appointed by the principal himself before he became incapacitated. Paid arrangements for partial representations, such as bill paying services and trusts, could further reduce the risks of being abused by the guardian although they are less flexible than durable power of attorney when the principal would be in need of more complicated decision-making. At the same time, Probate Courts of the most states have developed some kinds of systems to oversee the guardians regularly. Courts also impose the guardians to attend training programs and to submit annual reports. Furthermore, some states employ court visitors and volunteer conservator programs.

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National Health Insurance (NHI) was introduced in 1995 as the first universal medical insurance system in Taiwan. Before that, there existed sixteen medical insurance programs, which covered only a small part of the population. The reason for the lack of the universal system can be attributed to the existence of conflict with Mainland China and the decision by the Kuomingtang, Taiwan's long-term dominant party, to give top priority to economical development, rather than social development. However, the establishment of universal system became one of the political agendas through the democratization process since mid-1980's. In 1997, Taiwan government planned to cut costs by privatizing and pluralizing of NHI. KMT and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), the opposition party, have agreed on the privatization of state-owned enterprises so far, but it may take years to reform the NHI because both the national and international politics concerning Taiwan have been very unsteady. In this article, I conclude that the attempt of Taiwan's pluralism will be increasingly demanded by changing civil society and political party systems of Taiwan and the relationship with Mainland China.

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The concern about non-profit organization (NPO) has been growing. A considerable number of studies have been conducted on the institution of NPO. But very few studies have been made on principle and significance of NPO and its relationship with social system in the future. The purpose of this study is to consider the principle for the formation of NPO, by examining theories of principle for system and theory of association. Ikuyou Kaneko shows theory of three principles for system from theory of three sectors. Particularly, third principle consists in NPO essentially. Kaneko explains the necessity of NPO by the third principle. Moreover the third principle is internal and important requisite for social system in the future. In order to explain the principle for the formation of NPO, we must refer to the theory of association. According to the historical background of the theory of association, the important points are; guaranteed freedom of association, and direct democracy. In other words, association is a historical and thoughtful concept. In addition, it is necessary to understand that association takes part in public areas.

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The aim of this article is to explore the anti-new poor law movement in Britain between the wars: Poplarism. This movement has been regarded as a step to improve the poor law system in Britain. In Britain, after the 'Great Depression' of the late nineteenth century, the former social policy legislation was challenged to transform itself into a modern social policy scheme under the pressure of various rising labour movements. The Poor Law system itself was no exceptional case. Under these circumstances, 'Poplar Board of Guardian' commanded by George Lansbury and his colleagues who were from labour classes, started to campaign for "The Humane Administration of the Poor Law" in order to transform it into a humanized one. The specific goals of this administration were 1 to admit to give the able-bodied and their families out-door relief unconditionally. 2 to try to set up the minimum relief scale of both indoor-relief and out-door relief to the residents in order to make their living condition better through the scientific observation and social work practice. 3 to overcome its financial difficulties which were caused as a result of this administration's opposition to the LCC (London County Council), the Ministry of Health and the Government by rejecting to pay the local rates imposed by the LCC.

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