BY Kei SHIRAHAMA

This summer vacation I participated in two seminars on volunteer activities and two others on the handicapped, as preparation for acquiring a junior high school teaching certificate. I took part in the seminars at Ichian preschool, a civic preschool in Fukagawa city, and at Hokkaido Sapporo School for handicapped children in Atsubetsu ward, and at Hokkaido, Hard of Hearing, High School in Zenibako, Otaru City and Green Pia Shinoro, the center for social welfare in the north ward to learn about how to care for the aged. I had been thinking that I wanted to meet many people and to have various experiences. And all of them were really precious for me.

The most impressive of the four was the practice of Day-Service for the aged at Green Pia Shinoro, which is a special nursing home for the aged, from August 6th to 10th. The Day-Service for the aged is a form of care, in which handicapped people, who do not need care all the time, come from their home on a set day of the week. The main services are bathing and a meal. About forty people a day used the facilities.

The day starts at 9:00 AM, when a bus picks up the users from their homes. When the users have changed their shoes and left their bags and coats, they are led to the assembly hall, the Day-Room. After that they check their individual routine and start to bathe. The users who have finished bathing take a break until all of them have finished. After bathing they have lunch. They have a break after lunch, and then take part in soft exercises, enjoy recreation, have a snack, and finally from 3:00 PM get on the pick-up bus. A day ends with their arriving home.

The most impressive things are the supervision of bathing and other activities during the break, which were my main daily jobs. When we took care of the bathers, we had to do everything in a line: leading the users to the bath room, helping them take off their clothes, leading them to the washing place for washing, washing them all over, leading them to bath tab, toweling their bodies, helping them to put on their clothes, and leading them to their seats in the Day-Room, assisted by about six other people. It was my first opportunity to supervise bathing, and I was confused and flustered, but when I saw that the users were very pleased with my hard work, I felt satisfaction that other people could depend on me.

At break the users and I took part in various activities, such as Japanese origami, coloring, singing songs. Most of users smiled as they talked with me and looked happy all the time. And through talking with them I found out that most of the users think that the Day-Service is enjoyable and appreciate that they can take part in it. The most impressive person I talked to was an old blind woman.

Because of her sightless eyes, she was unable to participate in coloring and Japanese origami, but I tried to talk with her by giving her my hand. She didn't refuse to give me her hand in return. We talked about our favorite foods and her son. At first, she refused to sing a song, but as time went on she began to join in the singing. I thought we were able to share our inexpressibly quiet time together.

Through this experience I felt satisfaction at being depended upon by other people and at reacting to them; but I also occasionally saw the users' anxious expression, and sometimes felt their anxiety. The Day-Service is only a small thing in the care for the aged, however, and the issue of care for the aged, as a whole, has many insoluble problems; roaming, violence, senile dementia, around the-clock observation, the anxiety of the aged living alone.

We think it necessary to create machinery that will give more people a chance to come in contact with the aged without being employed formally. If this can be set up, we and the aged will be able to fulfill each other. And it will trigger a solution of the mental issues relating to the aged. It is also necessary to create a mechanism in which the aged are encouraged to do as much as possible for themselves and to make sure that they remain useful members of society. I hope that some day we can build a society in which the aged can have a much more satisfactory time.