At the 4th Evening Salon, Miho Suzuki and Ayumi Igarashi, assistant professors from the Graduate School of Medicine gave a report entitled “Elderly care from the convenience store: comprehensive community-based care system starts from the community.” They introduced specific case studies based on interviews with a convenience store manager. For example, they explained a case where a single elderly regular customer called the store in the middle of the night saying “I fell from my wheel chair. Could you help me out?” Another example included a regular customer who ordered door-to-door delivery on the phone on a daily basis. When the customer did not call, the store manager felt worried, and visited the customer’s home to find him lying unconscious. He also stated that positioning the convenience store as an element of a comprehensive community-based care system could be effective. Currently, the system is not spread out at all. There is a need to organize issues regarding elderly care through convenience stores. The presenters also shared their research plans for the next three years. |