d) Short-term Stay Service (Respite Care)
Short-term Stay Services are mainly provided in nursing homes for the elderly. There are also institutions providing only short-term stay services, but the number of such institutions is quite limited. At the end of fiscal year 1999, there will be approximately 60,000 beds for Short-term Stay Service throughout Japan.
e) Home Care Support Centers
The purpose of the Home Care Support Center is to give advice to family caregivers, to provide information on home care, and to refer cases to an appropriate social agency when necessary. Some centers have a showroom of equipment and supplies for home care. According to the national standard, each center should have at lease one social worker and one trained nurse. All the centers receive telephone calls 24 hours a day.
At the end of fiscal year 1997, there were 6,172 such centers throughout Japan. As was described earlier in this paper, the number of the centers will be increased to 10,000 before the end of fiscal year 1999.
f) Provision of Technical Aids for Home Care
This program is subsidized by the National Government. Utilizing this subsidy, all Local Governments are operating this service. The program covers most of the important technical aids for home care, including specially-equipped beds, special mattress, air-pads for the prevention of bedsores, toilet chairs, special automated urinals, fire alarms, automated fire-extinguishers, emergency alarm systems, a set of special transmitters and receivers for the loitering demented elderly, wheelchairs, special telephone equipment, and so forth. At present, sixteen kinds of equipment are provided by this program. These technical aids are free of charge for low-income persons. Those whose income is more than a certain level are required to pay a charge. The amount of charge is decided according to their amount of income.
