[in Japanese]

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The author proposes a new method to quantitatively assess the activity of “Inochi-no-Denwa”, a typical community mental health program for suicide prevention with telephones in Japan, to social needs, based on the statistical report of this program and the national vital statistics. The annual rate of the number of suicidal calls to “Inochi-no-Denwa” per the number of suicide death in Japan (1995) was higher in the youth than in the middle-aged/elderly, and was higher in women than in men regardless of age. This suggests that “Inochi-no-Denwa” has intensively worked for the needs for suicide prevention in the youth and women, compared with that in the middle-aged/elderly and men. This gender/age-tendency is inverse to the tendency of suicide mortality in Japan.Furthermore, it is rationally shown that little effect of “Inochi-no-Denwa” on suicide prevention can be expected if the above rate is very low. The meaning of these results for the community mental health program is also discussed. Key Word: suicide prevention, Inochi-no-Denwa, quantitative assessment, social needs, community mental health

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The present study was undertaken to examine the levels of burnout, demographic characteristics, death anxiety, and attitudes toward death of 256 terminal care nurses in 17 different facilities. We used the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) to measure the levels of burnout and the Death Anxiety Scale (DAS) to measure death anxiety. One-way ANOVA indicated that burnout of the nurses was related not only to the cognitive and emotional factors such as death anxiety and the attitude toward death but also to environmental factors such as the type of hospice and rotating shifts. For example, nurses working in two rotating shifts and in a ward which does not have the right to perform palliative care were more likely to experience burnout. Also nurses who have no confidant to talk with and who have ambivalent motivation for the current job are more likely to experience burnout. Pearson coefficients indicated positive associations of burnout with death anxiety.
As regards attitude toward death, nurses who see death as fearful are more likely to experience burnout.
1) Department of Clinical Psychology and Research Center of Comprehensive Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, the University of Ryukyus
2) Department of Mental Health and Research Center of Comprehensive Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, the University of Ryukyus

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