Hidamari, Consultation Support Office
Yusuke Yamakita

1. Outline of Anjo City and the Council for Independent Living Support for Persons with Disabilities in Anjo City

Anjo City is located around the center of Aichi Prefecture with a population of about 190,000. It is also the region of Mikawa, which is the focus of this year’s TV historical drama “Dosuru, Ieyasu (What Would You Do, Ieyasu?).” The city used to be an advanced agricultural area that it was called “Denmark of Japan”; but in recent years, it has been urbanized with the development of the machinery industry, including Toyota Motor Corporation-related companies, and is said to be a well-balanced city in terms of agriculture, manufacturing, and commerce. The number of people holding various disability certificates is 8,161, and the number of users of disability welfare services is 1,786. These numbers are steadily increasing every year.

The Council for Independent Living Support for Persons with Disabilities (hereinafter referred to as “Council”) is unique in that, in addition to subordinate organizations (groups) for each issue and object, there is a group of persons with disabilities whose members are selected from the public. Under the slogan “Person-centered before Anything Else,” the group discusses various issues in the community. The Anjo City Council of Social Welfare (hereinafter referred to as “CSW”), which is entrusted with the projects of Core Consultation Support Center (hereinafter referred to as “Core Center”), serves as the secretariat and coordinates various activities.

2. Development of the Community Life Support Center

At the end of FY2015, a project team was formed within the Council and began discussions toward the establishment of a community life support center. Even before that, discussions were held mainly with: (1) the Core Center, (2) the designated general consultation support offices, and (3) the short-stay facilities that are closely related to the “nighttime and holiday consultation system” and “emergency admissions,” which had previously been raised as current community issues of Anjo City. As a result, the Community Life Support Center was launched in April 2017 with the aim of establishing a system that would allow the strengths of each office and facility to be utilized in the five functions of the Community Life Support Center.

3. Specific Details of Required Functions and Status of Endeavors

a. Consultation

In order to enhance the consultation support system in Anjo City, center coordinators have been assigned at an office different from the CSW, the Core Center, to respond to consultations and emergency calls 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Seven consultants, including the center coordinators, rotate on a weekly basis and provide consultation services using cell phones. In case of emergencies, the center coordinators shall take over the responsibilities.

A network was created among the following: (1) Anjo City’s Section for the Welfare of Persons with Disabilities, (2) the Core Center, and (3) the center coordinators to immediately share information when an emergency arises. This is to ensure that the center coordinators who respond to emergencies are not isolated. The number of center coordinators was initially two per facility, but has been increased to four per two facilities since FY2020.

b. Admission to welfare facilities in case of an emergency

The center coordinators and the five short-stay facilities in the city are working together to establish guidelines when responding to emergencies. Short-stay facilities that accept users in case of an emergency might have to cope with the situation in the absence of necessary information. Therefore, we let the consultants in charge to encourage those who might be in an emergency to register using the “Emergency Response Sheet.” This system allows the center coordinators to share the registered information in advance, making it easier to coordinate the necessary support before and after the emergency.

c. Opportunities for Independent Living

We have created a system whereby a room in a staff dormitory of a social welfare corporation in the city can be used as a “trial room” for those who wish to experience living alone. The rooms are furnished with furniture and home appliances, and users can experience living alone. They are persons from a group home who want to live alone, or students who want to find a job in a distant place after graduation from school, or persons who want to live alone after discharge from a psychiatric hospital, or those who want to visualize living alone after the death of their parents, etc.

d. Expertise

Training for the welfare personnel was originally planned and managed by the Core Center. As discussions within each group of the Council became more engaging, each group began to express their desire to plan and manage their own training programs. Therefore, the Core Center and the center coordinators took the lead in establishing the guidelines for organizing the training, allowing anyone to join in as long as their plans were approved by the Council. By involving many people from the planning stage, we were able to expand the number of people who were willing to work on the training as if it were their own. Currently, we are preparing the city’s own vision for human resources development in the field of welfare so that more people can understand it.

e. Building a community system

Center coordinators also participate in the management meetings consisting of core members of the Council to discuss the overall direction of the Council. In addition, efforts are being made to collaborate with organizations and individuals in other fields and in multiple professions with an awareness of the need to develop a multilayered support system.
The “trial room”

4. Future Tasks and Prospects

We have continued to play a central role since the preparation stage of the community life support center, and while experiencing the unique difficulties caused by COVID-19, we have aimed to “create a system that allows people to continue to live with peace and security in Anjo City.” However, there are still many issues to be addressed in each of the five functions. Currently, we are focusing on three major points:

The first point is emergency preparedness. We have been encouraging people to register for the “Emergency Response Sheet,” but at this point, only about 15 people have registered, so we must say that the number is still small. Most of those who needed help in an emergency so far had not yet registered. The Emergency Response Sheet system has not been fully utilized. Many people might not consider an emergency case as real, and when our consultants encourage them to register, they decline saying, “We are still all right.” It is also understandable that the facility accepting these persons without any prior information about him or her is concerned about responsibility issues in the event of any unfavorable consequences. While enhancing professionalism on the admission side, we are patiently recommending registration to those who might encounter an emergency.

The second point is to enhance the use of the Trial Room. In FY2020, the number of days the Trial Room was used was 155 days, which was relatively high. However, in FY2022, it went down to 32 days (at the end of December 2022), which is about the same as in previous years. There are some issues that need to be addressed, such as the fact that helpers are not available during their stay in the Trial Room, that it is difficult to contact those without cell phones because there is no landline telephone in this room, and that not all wheelchair users are able to use the room because it is not completely barrier-free. We would like to address these challenges one by one and make the place more accessible to as many people as possible who wish to use it.

The third point is about our efforts to promote a community-based inclusive society. Although we are gradually beginning to establish a network of welfare for people with disabilities, the elderly, and children, we have not yet had the opportunity to connect them with other local residents, who are often thought of as being out of touch with the welfare system. When we think within the framework of the welfare of persons with disabilities, we tend to focus on various issues. At the same time, we know that the people with disabilities we are involved with on a daily basis have various abilities (special skills and strengths). We, welfare workers, might also be able to help people in the community with their problems. We would like to work together to build up the community through good communications while listening to the issues of each community in Anjo City.