UCHIDA Mitsunori

This study aims to examine the issues concerning the institutionalization of the Comprehensive Support System Development Project, in order to realize a community-based society as well as to assess the role of local governments in its implementation. First, the study outlines the background of the institutionalization of the project in terms of realizing a community-based society in conjunction with amendments to various laws. Next, I reviewed previous research. Then, with the use of case studies, the study investigates the practices of counseling support offices within the project, verifying how they implement the functions listed in Article 106-4, Paragraph 2 of the Social Welfare Act. The results showed that the practices of the counseling support office involves various roles, including identifying those who require support (outreach) in social work practices, initiating counseling support, providing support for participation, supporting community development and offering opportunities for continued accompanied support through collaborative activities arranged across multiple agencies. However, carrying out community development while providing individual support is challenging, and requires powerful backing from local governments. As one possible solution, this study suggests appointing public health nurses as community social workers, and becoming the key figures in community development within the framework of the Comprehensive Support System Development Project. Key Words：continued accompanied support，community development，public health nurses，community social workers

This study aims to analyze the feelings/thoughts of those who use the Self-Reliance Support System for the Needy, one of the support systems in the Comprehensive Support System Development Project, implemented by various cities and towns since April 2021. The objective is to provide insight into the forms of support required by support organizations (support providers) involved in this project. First, the study reviews previous studies to clarify the concepts of empathetic assistance and accompanied assistance. Next, three users of the Self-Reliance Support System for the Needy, were interviewed and their responses analyzed, then categorized into three parts: “Initial interview impressions”, “Thoughts on support and the support received”, and “Current thoughts.” The results elucidated the following four expectations that the users have of their support providers: “To listen carefully to them to fully understand their current situations facing everyday problems,” “To provide accurate support based on expertise,” “To accompany them on visits to relevant organizations and attend interviews with them,” and “To help with continued engagement.” The study found that the users’ first three expectations are met with the effective use of both empathetic and accompanied types of assistance, as mentioned in previous studies. However, the system is not fulfilling their fourth expectation of “continued engagement.” Based on the above findings, the study suggests that if the existing consultation support organizations cannot fulfill the role of a coordinator that forms the essential part of providing accompanied assistance, the public support institutions should take on the role in order to respond to the users’ expectation of “continued engagement.” Key Words empathetic assistance, accompanied assistance, the role of a coordinator, the public support institutions

More than 30 years have passed since the Social Worker and Care Worker Act was enacted in 1987, which positioned social welfare officers as nationally qualified social workers, and as of the end of December 2022, there were 271,208 registered social workers. As stipulated in Article 2 of the Social Worker and Care Worker Act, social workers are professionals who, with their specialized knowledge and skills, provide "consultation" to persons eligible for assistance, "advice and guidance," "liaison and coordination" with welfare service providers and other professionals and persons concerned, and "other assistance.” In this study, five social workers from the Council of Social Welfare (in charge of projects to support the selfreliance of the needy) and the Community Comprehensive Support Center were surveyed for four weeks from February 7 to March 4, 2022, to investigate their work dynamics. The survey results indicate that social workers perform their professional duties as stipulated in the Act according to the functions and roles of their agencies. However, "outreach" and "community and organizational outreach," which are the goals of the "Consultation Assistance" section of the research presentations at the annual conference of the Japan Society of Social Workers, are being practiced but account for only a small percentage of the total work.We believe that further collaboration and information sharing with related organizations is needed to discover those in need of assistance. As for the other objective of "collaboration with various professions", it became clear that the respondents collaborated with health, medical, welfare-related organizations, government administrators, and welfare commissioners, as well as with probation officers and lawyers, etc., as required for the persons are assisted by each organization. Based on the above, we believe that by accumulating practices related to "outreach" and “community and organizational outreach", social workers will be able to fulfill the roles of responding to cross-system issues and supporting activities of local residents, as it was anticipated by the Special Committee for Securing Welfare Human Resources of the Welfare Subcommittee, Social Security Council of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare to work toward the realization of a "community-based society.”

This paper clarifies the work undertaken by public assistance caseworkers in Yamaguchi Prefecture by analyzing their weekly work diaries and comparing them with the work stipulated in the Public Assistance Act and the Social Welfare Act. The work of public assistance caseworkers was subdivided into 21 items. When the contents of the work were classified into the four categories of work stipulated in the Social Welfare Act, 44.6% of the work was made up of interviews; 24.5% was investigation; 47.9% was decision-making, and 1% was providing guidance. These findings indicate that public assistance caseworkers conduct interviews with those receiving assistance and with others connected with them, make decisions regarding whether to provide public assistance, and provide guidance according to the situation for the purpose of investigations that form the basis for the proper administration of public assistance. In addition, the ratio of the different aspects of their work indicates that there are only a few guidance tasks related to handling cases of fraud. Public assistance caseworkers have the heavy responsibility of having a high level of decision-making ability in deciding whether to provide public assistance as a physical manifestation of citizens’ right to life, based on the information obtained from investigations related to interviews with those receiving assistance. 　Furthermore, with regard to the discretionary power of public assistance caseworkers in carrying out their work, it was found that although there is no room for discretion in the application of the law in guaranteeing a minimum standard of living, as this is a legally mandated task, they do have discretion in promoting self-reliance because they implement self-reliance support programs that are tailored to the situation on the ground in individual welfare offices. In addition, although there is no room for discretion regarding how to allocate energy when dealing with applications for starting or changing assistance due to the time constraints in the process leading up to making a decision, it was found that discretion was given to caseworkers in cases where they were making visits to households receiving continuing assistance, as these were planned on a yearly and monthly basis and implemented systematically.