Collaboration between "health/welfare care" and "funeral directors and religionists" to provide support for the elderly at the end-of-life stage living in nursing care facilities and staff members

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24590645
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Medical sociology
• Research Institution: Mukogawa Women's University
• Principal Investigator: OHNISHI Jiro 武庫川女子大学, 文学部, 教授 (20388797)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: エンドオブライフケア / グリーフケア / 看取り / 精神科ソーシャルワーク / 葬儀 / 宗教

Outline of Final Research Achievements

As the Japanese society faces the issue of high mortality, there has been a shift in the provider of end-of-life care, from medical to welfare, and the responsibility of funeral directors and religionists to collaborate with nursing care staff has been attracting attention.
Elderly people living in nursing care facilities experience anticipatory grief over their own deaths, and funeral directors are expected to serve as care providers by recognizing the grief of them, using grief-care approaches. Religionists have traditionally fulfilled, and are expected to continue to fulfill, the roles of alleviating painful memories of the deaths of loved ones that remain in hearts of staff and family members, and promoting their spirits as eternal.
Since psychiatric social workers are positioned as specialists in charge of providing support for the elderly and staff, it is necessary to systematize their practical activities while taking into account both their interdisciplinarity and uniqueness.

Free Research Field

社会科学