In this study, an interview survey was conducted among people with intellectual disabilities belonging to a self-advocacy group. The study investigated their awareness of their rights by referring to their experiences. People with intellectual disabilities understood that their unbridgeable and unreasonable experiences were a consequence of disability. The awareness of their rights had led them to participate in a self-advocacy group. In addition, they understood that their participation in such a group and associated activities would help them recover their self-confidence and become more aware of their rights. Their participation in the group’s activities redefined their situation in life and allowed them to become more conscious of their rights in social relationships. Moreover, relationships with other people who were aware of their inherent rights thus communicated this awareness of their rights to others. Self-advocacy group membership for those with intellectual disabilities fostered an awareness of rights through an accumulation of activities, companionship, and cooperation with other groups, which conveyed the awareness of their rights to others.

This study clarifies 1) why the staff closed the institution for persons with intellectual disabilities, and 2) why they modified the closure plan, which included moving residents to small homes scattered in the community. The study is based on the qualitative research at the Social Welfare Corporation A. The first reason why the staff closed the institution is that they intended to eliminate the hierarchical relationship between the staff and residents through “valuing the acceptance of residents by neutralizing the staff’s power” and “the consciousness of abusive structure.” Second, the staff recognized the structural limitation on which the hierarchical relationship between the staff and residents is built couldn’t be eliminated even if they performed institutional reform and transitioned to community-based homes. The primary objective of the modification of the closure plan by the staff is their emphasis on a collaborative relationship with the city from the perspective of the subsidization and management of the corporation. Second, they prioritized moving residents to community-based homes by emphasizing the closure of the institution itself and the expected closure of remaining institution structures. This study indicates the necessity of a deinstitutionalization policy through external policy incentive and internal awareness raising.

This investigation aims to demonstrate the process of establishing kakawari or personal relationships between psychiatric social workers in social support centers for persons with disabilities and long-term inpatients in mental hospitals. Interviews were conducted with seven psychiatric social workers in area A. Data obtained from the dialogs were analyzed using a modified grounded theory approach. The results of the examination elucidated that the process of kakawari was formed in three phases. First, psychiatric social workers disregard their ongoing discharge planning and support duties so as to get to know the patients assigned to them and establish personal relationships with them. Consequently, a relationship of trust is built between the psychiatric social workers and their inpatients. Second, psychiatric social workers and inpatients come to trust each other as partners and work together to achieve discharge from the institution. Finally, psychiatric social workers establish a human connection or kakawari with their inpatients and continue to associate with former inpatients after their primary role to achieve discharge is no longer required.

The purpose of the current study was to examine the relationship between work engagement and working conditions for care staff working at long-term care insurance facilities for three years or longer. Care staff at 72 facilities were surveyed and responses were received from 284 care staff members. The questionnaire consisted of questions based on a modified Job Demands-Resources Model. Responses were subjected to a multiple regression analysis, which indicated that several factors increased work engagement. “Work-self balance”(positive), which is a “job resource at the organizational level,” and “job suitability,” “meaningfulness of work,” “role clarity,” and “career opportunities,” which are “job resources at the task level,” significantly affected work engagement. These findings indicate that working conditions need to be created for care staff to feel that their work is meaningful rather than fostering factors, such as team and interpersonal relationships, which are “job resources at the workgroup level.”

In the present study, we conducted interviews with four school social workers (SSWers) with experience in both placement- and dispatch-type duties. We aimed to clarify the changes in their expectations of their duties and the support process by type of assignment using the Trajectory Equifinality Approach. As a result, the following three findings were made:

First, all four workers had the following three experiences during placement-type duties:

(1) Encountering children who act violently due to classroom breakdown or abuse

(2) Taking the initiative in conducting activities

(3) Giving advice to children and teaching them how to ask for help

Second, regardless of the assignment type, the social workers had to connect schools and children with other organizations. Furthermore, they experienced a “dilemma concerning the type of assignment” when they were engaged in dispatch-type duties, and they became aware of the importance of placement-type duties in which they could provide directive support or cooperate with teachers. The results suggest that the support of SSWers qualitatively differs with the type of assignment and that directive support to children/their surrounding environment and cooperation with schools/communities is important.

This study aims to examine effective ways to support school social work for children of LGBTQ in Japan. For that purpose, I conducted a questionnaire survey on nursing teachers who are thought to play an important role in supporting LGBTQ pupils and analysed the support situation at Japanese schools. As a result, there were certain structures suppressing such children by way of stigma at schools. This indicated that these children were quite powerlessness and susceptible to such situations as stigmatisation in Japanese schools. In addition to these issues,(1) no early support is provided,(2) schools do not provide an environment that enables consultations for children of LGBTQ, and (3) school staff are not actively working as a whole to resolve such issues. Therefore, school social work practices are necessary from the viewpoint of respect for human rights, social justice and diversity, which is the value basis of social work. For this reason, school social workers are expected to conduct empowerment practices at schools. In particular, the introduction of empowerment theory for powerlessness situations is considered to be effective.