Main description:

The aging of society is a growing concern in all advanced nations, and at the forefront of concern is long-term care for frail older people. Enactment of a new public long-term care insurance program by the Japanese government in 1997 provided an excellent opportunity for a conference focusing on an ideal long-term care system for frail older people. The conference was organized around four major themes: Social aspects, including family dynamics and the role of formal providers; Clinical aspects, including effective treatments for physical and mental disabilities; Macroeconomic and macropolitical settings for public policy; Program design and management issues. With contributions from the fields of medicine, nursing, social work, gerontology, political science, economics, and sociology, this volume provides an overview of key problems and possible solutions in programs for frail older people from a unique international perspective.

Contents:

Session 1 Social and Family Aspects of Care.- and Summary.- Commentary: Will We Have the Wisdom to Learn?.- From the Perspective of the Older Person.- Improving the Quality and Expanding the Quantity of Long-Term Care Staff.- Social Aspects of Care and How They Relate with the Medical.- Women's Roles as Caregivers: Family, Worker, Volunteer.- Role of the Family in Long-Term Care.- The Relationship Between Informal and Formal Care.- Summary of the Discussion for Session 1.- Session 2 Clinical Aspects of Care.- and Summary.- Commentary: Preparing Health and Social Clinicians for Holistic Care.- Maintaining Physical Functioning of Frail Older People.- Physicians' Roles in the Geriatrics Interdisciplinary Team.- The Role of Nurses in Long-Term Care for the Elderly.- Issues Physicians Must Face Under Long-Term Care Insurance.- Interface of Acute and Long-Term Care: Clinical Perspective.- Training of Physicians for Long-Term Care.- Long-Term Care: The Need for Special Medical Supervision and Collaboration Between Health and Social Services.- Long-Term Care and Dementia.- Summary of the Discussion for Session 2.- Session 3 The Macroeconomic and Macropolitical Setting.- and Summary.- Commentary: Macroeconomic and Macropolitical Setting.- Financing the Ideal Long-Term Care System Through Social Insurance.- Learning from Other Countries' Experiences in Designing the Ideal Long-Term Care System.- Long-Term Care Within National Social Policy.- Financing Long-Term Care: What We Can Learn from the German Experience.- Long-Term Care and the Labor Market.- How the System Can Be Sustained Politically.- Market Elements in Financing and Delivering Long-Term Care.- Summary of the Discussion for Session 3.- Session 4 Program Design.- and Summary.- Commentary: Cross-Cutting Themes in the Provision of LTC.- Effective Care Management.- Japan's Long-Term Care Insurance System: The Likely Impact on Service Suppliers and Their Staffs.- Models of Long-Term Care That Work.- The Development of Strategies for the Demented Elderly in the Tokyo Metropolitan Area.- Achieving Quality in Institutional and Home-Based Long-Term Care.- The Role of Housing in Long-Term Care for Old People.- Balancing Institutional and Home and Community-Based Care.- Summary of the Discussion for Session 4.- Letter From Tokyo: Public Long-Term Care Insurance in Japan.- Biographical Sketches of Participants.- Addresses of the Participants.