Abstract
This study aimed to clarify the multifunctional services and space composition in the process of developing a multifunctional long-term care program in small elderly care facilities in Japan. We collected data about multifunctional long-term care at small facilities from the Community Life Support Center (CLC), a Japanese non-profit corporation, and conducted an interview survey of the members of the CLC's secretariat in 2014. Furthermore, we selected 3 Japanese pioneering care facilities (known as takurosho), and conducted interview surveys and data collection to clarify in detail the space composition and process of development of multifunctional long-term care at small facilities. Four distinct results were found. First, the facilities had gradually increased non-institutional services, including visitation, overnight stays, and long-term stays, to fit the needs of users and their families. Secondly, in the 1990s, they could offer both non-institutional and institutional services at the same facility, but after the long-term care insurance system began in 2000, non-institutional long-term stay services were not allowed. Third, the facilities had built extensions or extra rooms in response to increases in multifunctional services and users. These rooms had common characteristics, with sitting rooms at the center of the facility. Lastly, the maximum number of service users at each of the 3 facilities was limited to 15, to maintain a small scale. However, as the size of facilities was increased through building extensions or remodeling, the overall amount of area available to users increased.