• Journal of The Korea Institute of Healthcare Architecture
• /
• v.25 no.3
• /
• pp.67-74
• /
• 2019

Purpose: In 2012, the Child Welfare Act was revised to provide better support to children with severe disabilities in Japan. Previously, inpatient facilities had been classified according to the type of disabilities of patients. After the revision of the Act, however, these facilities were assigned into the category of "medical-type facilities for children with disabilities", or "welfare-type facilities for children with disabilities." The focus of the study is to evaluate the reorganization of the Child Welfare Act and to analyze the new layout of Center K after its transition from a facility for children with motional disabilities to a medical-type facility for children with disabilities. Methods: A literature review was conducted to identify the trend in the treatment for persons with disabilities and the process of policy making in Japan. Field research was performed twice in 2015 and 2016, before and after the renovation of the Center K facilities depending upon the revision of the Child Welfare Act. Results: There is an increasing tendency of the population of persons with disabilities in Japan, and the severity level of disability of children with disabilities. In the case of Center K, two types of ward constructed to meet the two types of disability has been reconstructed into three types of unit following the various severity level of disability. Implications: As a result, it could be argued that it is also necessary in Korea to reorganize the facilities for persons with disabilities to deal with the fact that the population of persons with disabilities in Korea has been growing and their degree of disabilities also getting severe.