Post-quake survey: Staff exhausted at care facilities for elderly and disabled

From NHK

January 10 2024 

NOTO, Ishikawa Pref – A survey has found that caregivers at facilities for the elderly and people with disabilities are working under extreme stress following the massive earthquake that struck the Noto Peninsula on New Year’s Day.

The Noto Welfare Relief Volunteer Network delivered relief supplies and surveyed 12 welfare facilities in Wajima City, Anamizu Town, and Nanao City in Ishikawa Prefecture on Saturday and Sunday.

The network includes non-profit organizations and university researchers who support welfare facilities in the region.

The group says all nine facilities that responded to questions said some of their staff are unable to report to work or remain unaccounted for.

The facilities said they are continuing to provide support in a difficult situation.

One facility said only ten percent of its staff are able to come to work, and that some employees have been working since New Year’s Day.

Others said staff who cannot go home because their houses have collapsed have been sleeping at their workplace. Some facilities expressed concern about their staff’s mental and physical condition.

The volunteer network says all 12 facilities had no running water. Some facilities said they found it difficult to manage basic sanitary needs and oral hygiene of those in their care.

Others said some people receiving care for dementia cannot understand the situation, and that many have become mentally unstable and incontinent.

Bukkyo University instructor Gotoh Yukinori who took part in the survey says staff at care facilities are exhausted and surviving purely on sheer willpower.

He said some caregivers started crying when relief supplies were delivered, and appeared to be close to their breaking point.

He said personnel support must be extended as soon as possible so caregivers can rest.

Japan’s health ministry says that as of 7 a.m. on Wednesday, 145 facilities for the elderly and 32 facilities for people with disabilities in Ishikawa Prefecture had sustained damage from the earthquakes.