A Case Study on one of the Group House for the Elderly in Japan

일본의 그룹하우스에 관한 사례연구

The nursing-care insurance system started in April, 2000 in Japan. It was a kind of business opportunities for a lot of private entrepreneurs. They came into this care service business from another type of business rapidly. They opened the pay nursing homes with 24 hour nursing. However, the expense load of the nursing-care insurance system was large, local governments started controlling on total numbers of facilities with 24 hours nursing in 2006. So the group houses besides the pay nursing home without nursing care are paid to attention. The pay nursing home has been often managed by the nursing business. Most of the group houses are managed by community based NPO. This study is a case study by the visit and the interview form for one of the group houses. The group house "Shalom Tsukimino" in Kanagawa started operations comparatively at early time among them. Through the study we recognized that a lot of people were helping the NPO as a community service. So they can manage the group house and people who live there get the services with low cost. They show that they separate residence and nursing and use the community service efficiently. We can find a new direction in this case for the life in elderly.