A Study on the Way of Life Support Conditions for the Elderly Who Use the Long-Term Care Insurance

The purpose of this paper is to clarify an ideal way of constructing a life support network to enable elderly people in urban areas to receive prescribed care at home. There is a need to construct a social network to support their life on the basis of the long-term care insurance. In this survey, we interviewed 15 elderlies in 13 households in Higashiosaka City in Osaka prefecture. The results are as follows: 1) Most of the interviewees hope to lead their life independent of their children and have no resistance in receiving the social life support service. 2) Generally speaking, the interviewees maintain good relationship with neighbors, the fact of which give them a sense of security in the community they belong to. 3) They may be classified into three types in view of their relation with their children as well as the utilization of the social life support service; a type supported by family, a type mainly supported by the social life support service, and a self-support type. A great majority of our interviewees are classified as the type mainly supported by the social life support service or the self-support type. (Received July 1, 2004; Accepted in revised form March 16, 2005)