Do long-term care insurance services help elderly people who are living alone in Japan?
Keywords:
End-of-life care, home death, nursing small-scale multifunctional in-home care (NSMH), community-based integrated care systemAbstract
More than half of the elderly people in Japan want to stay at home to recuperate when they cannot expect to recover from a disease, but the reality is that only 15.7% of them died at home in 2020. Japan is the world’s most rapidly aging country. As a consequence of this, the government has reformed elderly policies and encourages mutual aid as well as long-term care insurance services. Nursing small-scale multifunctional in-home care was introduced in 2012 as one of the long-term care insurance services to support people with medical needs, including end-of-life care, while they continue to live at home. However, there remains a shortage of service personnel. With the increase in the number of people living alone and changing roles based on blood ties or neighborhood relationships, the Japanese government should take responsibility to support mutual aid, and the local governments need to develop both formal and informal services in line with regional characteristics.
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