approximately 5 percent. Parenthetically speaking, however, the average length of stay of older persons in hospital in Japan is much longer than in other advanced countries. Thus, the actual gap between the needs and the available resources in the year 1999 will be considerably narrower than pure numerical comparison would indicate.
● The number of qualified workers will be substantially increased through the strengthening of various training programs. That is, the number of qualified careworkers will be increased by 200,000, trained nurses by 100,000, and trained PT and OT by 15,000 before the end of 1999.
This goal was not included in the original Gold Plan.
● In addition to the numerical goals described above, the New Ten-year Gold Plan is to promote the following services as fast as possible.
◯ Development of round-the-clock visiting personal care services by homehelpers;
◯ Improvement of nursing home facilities, so that they can have more private rooms;
◯ Strengthening of the family doctor system;
◯ Development of individual care planning for older persons needing community care services;
◯ Development of meals-on-wheels service;
◯ Improvement of personal care service in long-term care hospitals for aged patients;
◯ Modernization of nursing homes through the provision of grants for mechanization;
◯ Expansion of community-based rehabilitation service;
◯ Improvement and development of services for demented older persons, especially expansion of group-home service;
◯ Expansion of educational facilities and in-service-training programs for careworkers and social workers working for the welfare of the elderly;
◯ Development of technical aid service systems, including the strengthening of the research and development system;
◯ Utilization of voluntary and private (for-profit) services for the diversification of service resources and for flexibility of the service delivery system;
◯ Expansion of specially designed public housing for the elderly;
◯ Improvement of physical environments for the elderly and the han dicapped persons so that they may live pleasant lives safely in the community.
