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- Convenor:
-
Yoshihide Sakurai
(Hokkaido University)
Send message to Convenor
- Stream:
- Anthropology and Sociology
- Location:
- Bloco 1, Piso 1, Sala 1.10
- Start time:
- 31 August, 2017 at
Time zone: Europe/Lisbon
- Session slots:
- 1
Short Abstract:
In this session we will discuss various types of care provided by creative actors such as clinical religious persons for spiritual care, paramedical for end-of-life care, and l'Arche communities for disables. In so doing, we grasp a new sense of spirituality by reflecting our different life stages.
Long Abstract:
Even granting that dismal media reports on "gap society" and "no-relation society" has negatively affected the general mood of society, the pervasive sense of uncertainty and insecurity shared by Japanese people remain a puzzle for foreign researchers. The gap between subjective wellbeing and objective social security is caused by progressive changes in demography and work environment. If Japan's current low birthrates and longevity is to continue, the elderly population will be expected to reach approximately 39% of the total population, and the population will decrease to two third of its current size in 2050. Besides, increasing life span is also related to death anxiety, leading to over-prescription, prolonged hospital stay of bedridden elderly, and insufficient home care. In parallel, the young generation is tired of precariat and unpaid overtime work.
But the most determining cause for fear lies in the reduction of intimate, trustful and cooperative relationships in kinship, neighborhood, and workplace. Such social ties are necessary to each generation, as they offer a feeling that their dignity is being recognized by others and that they are struggling for the same social issues and working together to solve them. Where can Japanese people discover such social capital to replace the damaged social relations and create new ones? How can we ease our fear and heal our emotional wound in this individualizing and competitive society? In so doing, can we grasp a new sense of spirituality by reflecting our different life stages, thereby rediscover new aspects of human lifeļ¼birth, aging, illness, and death?
In this session we will discuss various types of care provided by creative actors. We tentatively prepared three papers: first, "Medicalization of natural death and restoration of human death in Japan" by Yoshihide Sakurai; second, "End-of-life within a Japanese Nursing Home" by Shizuko Katagiri; and third, "Comparative Studies of l'Arche communities in France, Canada, UK and Japan: What matters for care-work(er)s" by Junko Terada.
The chair is Yoshihide Sakurai. In addition, we would like to invite one more paper that concerns care and changing physical and mental health through receiving and giving care.
Accepted papers:
Session 1Yoshihide Sakurai (Hokkaido University)
Paper short abstract:
My paper illustrates demographic changes and hardships in personal life and society, and then introduces the activities of doctors practicing palliative care, paramedical workers, and citizens who have an interest in nursing care and good-dying.
Paper long abstract:
Increase in life expectancy of Japanese people has brought about unexpected personal and social consequences. Elderly people over 65 years old are expected to live twenty years more without sufficient pension and savings. Middle agers also have more than twenty year to care for their ageing parents and parents-in law, and in unfortunate cases they have to take turn to provide care to their parents in home due to the shortage of nursing home. Moreover, a sharp increase in medical and caring expenditure for elders will likely bring financial catastrophe of social security. Elders in the terminal phase receive high cost of life-sustaining treatment in hospital. They cannot die in their home if their family and doctors have compromised on their calm and natural death in hospital, and in case they have not written a living will. I dare to say it is time that Japanese should face and consider both good living and good dying. If not, a super-aging society may not be able to sustain itself in the future.
My paper illustrates demographic changes and hardships in personal life and society, and then introduces the activities of doctors practicing palliative care, paramedical workers, and citizens who have an interest in nursing care and good-dying. The society for the study of clinical dying has promoted this issue among citizens; both the association of chaplains and the association of the study of spiritual care have recently collaborated to consider how medical and religious practice can be combined to ease suffering of dying person and bereaved family as well. Facing one's own death and/or family' death, people tend to be courageous enough to reflect on their lives and to reconsider their relations with others. It might be useful for baby boomers living in the high economic growth period to look at the nature of birth, ageing, illness, and dying in human life. The endless pursuit of economic growth and global competitiveness in Japanese mindset should be cooled down in an ageing and dying society.
Shizuko Katagiri (Kagoshima University)
Paper short abstract:
This research explores End-of-life of the residents in a Japanese Nursing Home. The question are how nursing home care workers are changed by the End-of-life care that is given to the residents, and in turn how other residents are influenced by sharing the process of death in the nursing home.
Paper long abstract:
The aim of this research is to describe the End-of-life experience at the nursing home in Japan. The question explored is how nursing home care workers are changed by the End-of-life care that is given to the residents, and in turn how other residents are influenced by sharing the process of death in the nursing home.
The context is the gap between reality and ideal in terms of where to die for the baby boomer elderly. In 2025 the population of baby boomer elderly will be about twenty million. Several options of where to die, hospital, home, or nursing home are now available. An incentive was introduced in Japan in 2006 called "Mitori Adding" for nursing homes. This means when the institution practices End-of-life Care in their facility, they can get financially added premiums from the country's universal care insurance system.
In Sociological review, the change of value from modern to postmodern, is explained in part by place of death. In modern, elderly people had only one option that they would die at the hospital with medical professionals totally in charge of their care. On the other hand in postmodern, they have several options that include hospital but also their own houses with their family or the nursing home with the staff and other residents.
This research is focused on a model case. Qualitative data was collected by the interview from care workers and administrators who engaged End-of-life Care in a nursing home. Content analysis brought several insights. The administrator could secure a physician who had expertise in End-of-life Care. The care workers gradually built confidence to provide End-of-life Care. The other residents could observe and participate in the death of others in the nursing home. As a result an End-of-life Care Culture developed inside the nursing home community.
Junko Terado (Senshu University)
Paper short abstract:
L'Arche is an International Federation dedicated to the group-home movement where people with and without learning disabilities live together. The aim of this paper is to consider the common guiding principle for all l'Arche communities and the difference between l'Arche in Japan and the others.
Paper long abstract:
L'Arche, an International Federation dedicated to the group-home movement where people with and without learning disabilities live together, was founded in 1964 when a catholic Canadian philosopher Jean Vanier had begun to live with two men with learning disabilities at Trosly-Breuil (100km northeast of Paris), with spiritual support of a Dominican, Father Thomas. Since then, 147 l'Arche communities have founded in 37 countries, regardless of religious beliefs, and each community needs and is willing to be rooted in its own cultural base. Although a considerable number of reports have been made on l'Arche Community Movement, over the past decades, little study has been conducted and few attempts have so far been made at comparative studies for its diversity of cultural backgrounds.
Our concern is to consider two points below: first, the common guiding principle for all l'Arche communities, which aims for being a place more than care-house; secondly, the comparative studies of four communities, especially the difference between l'Arche in Japan and the others. The aim of this paper is to present l'Arche Community Movement as inter-cultural field of care-work and to point out the Japanese tendency in this field.