Disaster, municipality and the social welfare: Evaluating a process of a relief activity for the elder sufferers

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24530780
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Social welfare and social work studies
• Research Institution: Tokyo Metropolitan Geriatric Hospital and Institute of Gerontology
• Principal Investigator: Shimmei Masaya 地方独立行政法人東京都健康長寿医療センター(東京都健康長寿医療センター研究所), 東京都健康長寿医療センター研究所, 助手 (70312288)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): TAKAHASHI RYUTARO 地方独立行政法人東京都健康長寿医療センター(東京都健康長寿医療センター研究所), 東京都健康長寿医療センター研究所, 研究員 (20150881)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: 東日本大震災 / 専門職 / 施設 / 高齢者 / 安否確認 / 保護 / 自治体合併

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The Great East Japan Earthquake that occurred on 11th of March 2011 revealed certain vulnerabilities in the modern social systems in place. Life conditions of elderly were directly affected by the inability of the modern social system to provide support during this and other catastrophic incidents. To examine how institutional and structural boundaries of administrative regions affect the lives of the vulnerable residents, we studied two different municipalities affected by the disaster. The results show that responders were strongly affected by “the existing national elder care system,” “amalgamation of municipalities,” and “available resources” when acting to rescue elderly. This exemplifies that responders had to adapt to dysfunction in the “chain-of-command structure” of modern bureaucracy and an unpreparedness by local authorities by synthesizing their professional ability with affronted realities, improvising with fragmented social and material resources to provide aid.

Free Research Field

社会福祉学　社会政策