We held the second meeting for the special interest group of social welfare and information and communication technology in Kanazawa. We are interested in the interaction between social welfare and technology, more specifically, how ICT may contribute to improving the quality of life for the people with dementia. The first meeting was held a month ago, where we studied how the social welfare system is managed for caring the elderly and how those people feel as cared that way. The next meeting on this day was held to study the situation in Korea, our neighbor. I learnt for the first time that the country investigated the scheme of Japan carefully in establishing theirs. They seem to have time until the number of the elderly reaches to the critical level, but it is a concern that the speed of aging is so fast, the fastest in the world. Another lecturer reported us of the investigation she had undertaken to see how ICT is used in institutions. It turned out that people in Korea are relying on the technology, probably more than we Japanese are. One of the causes is the conflict between caregivers and the family members whose parents are cared by those workers. The caregivers are vulnerable to the claims made by those family members and need a way to protect themselves from groundless claims. We had examined the possibility a while ago, but believed it not to become an issue in Japan. I was a bit surprised to see the fear had a ground at least for our neighbor.
The lecturer explained the situation in Korea
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