50% of home care providers have experienced harassment: survey

As a x carer in thr UK i'd have to say the thought of being a carer here sends shivers up my spine and the place i used to care for specialized in large strong "difficult" clients. I take my hat off to Japanese carers.

Not surprising, after many years of working in a number of hospitals that had far too many elderly patients in varying conditions, and seeing how they treated each other and the staff, I am not surprised by this.

I often think that all the years of holding things back, you know they are Japanese, and in public, calm demeanor is the norm, they are literally letting it out. Also most of this happens in the homes or residents of the patients being cared for.

Hate to pop anyone's bubble that may be surprised by this, because "Oh the Japanese are so quiet and reserved" but let me tell you from experience, they can rag and be biatches just like people from other countries.

I think this has to do with the nature of service in Japan where the customer is always right or put on a kind of pedestal. This just enables harassers to feel entitled. Especially, but not always, older men seem to feel the right to boss people around. The more you kowtow to someone's demands, the less inhibited they feel in making more demands.

Entitlement.

Yep, the generation that put the younger Japanese in a dire economical situation is the one now demanding to have its rear wiped while they grab at the carer. Sad part is, the patients actually have reason to complain... go to any hospital / aged care facility and see how understaffed they are and how the oldies are ignored while they repeatedly call for help for most of the day. Not even kidding.

It's all just a by-product of a society that was taught to ignore the suffering of their countrymen since they hit junior high school.

I visit my partners mother 3 times a week in a care home. We can only stay a maximum of 30mins. After that she starts screaming and become violent. I really respect the staff, their job is so difficult. Of the 18 staff only one abuses residents.

i shocked to read 37% sexually harrassed. The care home I go is about 95% women.

I heard about a lady in a facility who was liked by everybody for her politeness. But when her dementia got worse, her personality changed and began yelling at other people. She played a good person for many years and her suppressed feelings came out.

This is hardly surprising I see this kind of behavior all the time in various ways, especially at retail stores, restaurants.

While most Japanese are low on the totem pole at work so are CONSTANTLY on the receiving end of BS from the supposed sempai, when they get to go shopping or out to eat SUDDENLY THEY can dish crap  & some REALLY DO unleash on people.

I see this sad behavior a LOT, a lot are little jabs of speech here & there but you can also often come across some real idiots UNLOADING on staff for some of the most tiny idiotic thing, but because they are "king" the unload...…….its actually very much part of the culture, a part personally I don't care for at all.

She played a good person for many years and her suppressed feelings came out.

How do you know they were suppressed feelings? Her brain was degrading, is it not equally plausible that this resulted in new feelings that never previously existed?

It is all because of dementia. Becoming violent is one typical symptom of dementia patients, the book says.

Japan's popular novelist Aiko Sato wrote a best seller book titled "90-sai Naniga Medetai?" (What is happy to live 90 years old?)  Living too long brings miseries and sadness. When people become they cannot live without constant help of others, it may the time they go.

The unsung hero’s of the nation these people. Those that cannot care for themselves often take their frustrations out on anyone in the vicinity, and there aren’t enough resources to give them the personal attention they desire or need.

Hopefully AI to the rescue eventually. The demographic challenge is also a chance for Japan to innovate and be a touchstone to the world, as many other countries face similar situations. A chance to shine in the golden years. Big challenge.

Japan's popular novelist Aiko Sato wrote a best seller book titled "90-sai Naniga Medetai?" (What is happy to live 90 years old?) Living too long brings miseries and sadness. When people become they cannot live without constant help of others, it may the time they go.

This goes against pretty much every survey into happiness, which all show the happiest group of people are the elderly. I guess that is because people give things up and become contented with what they are and what they have.

Getting back to the story, and I agree with the other posters that there is a cultural aspect to this. In Japan, all relationships are unequal and understood to be unequal from the sempai/kohai basis. One of the most tiresome things to witness at any PTA gathering is when the conversation shifts to the safe topic of old pop music. This usually leads to a case of Mother A talking of older music than Mother B, causing Mother B to realize that Mother A is in fact older than her and that she should be using keigo (honorific language) to talk to her. Mother A may protest and say it doesn't matter, but the basic rules of society say that the relationship between the two cannot be equal. In the story, the customer, i.e., the recipient of care services, is king and as other posters point out, the treatment they are giving carers has a "power harrassment" aspect to it, on top of the normal existence of difficult patients in any hospital or care home worldwide.

Without data on other countries, a survey like this does not mean much, especially when abuse is defined vaguely and broadly as is the case here.

British and American experts in eldercare given Japan very high marks for its system. Last year the highly respected Nuffield Foundation recommended to the UK Parliament that Britain study the Japanese system as a model for improving the British system. The eldercare systems in Taiwan and Korea have been heavily influenced by the Japanese system.

This does not mean there are no problems, but without comparable survey data from other countries, there is no way to know if the situation in Japan is good, bad, or more or less average.

Stories about abused caregivers appear from time to time in the British press, but I know of no surveys on the subject.

Without data on other countries, a survey like this does not mean much, especially when abuse is defined vaguely and broadly as is the case here.

I'm sure it means a lot to those being abused or those considering taking on what are largely thankless jobs for little remuneration. Especially in light of ongoing demographic change, meaning more caregivers will be needed in the coming years. My MIL goes through helpers (public and private) like candy and while she's not abusive she is never satisfied, saving her complaints for their supervistors who arrange for yet another replacement. I meet all of these women and while some aren't as competent or confident as you might hope, they are mostly kind and committed. They're also, as you'd imagine, not very well off. One was a widow in her late 60s, not in the best of health herself. In case it's not coming across fully, I'm more sympathetic to them than my MIL.

Anyway, I'm not sure if it's your intent but it appears as if you're trying to say that 50 percent of caregivers being harassed is meaningless unless we know what the corresponding figures are in the UK? Surely Japan is capable of recognizing and addressing its own problems regardless of what the situation is in the West.

Further to bullfighter's point praising Japan, Japan is also a world leader in palatable and easily digestible food for the elderly. Many societies struggle to produce tasty food for people with chewing and swallowing problems, but Japan can do it, largely thanks to the umami in dashi. If you give old people tasteless mush, they won't eat it and their health will deteriorate.

Care recipients may have spent their lives being nasty to their families and others around them, but that does not mean they can be nasty to care givers. Regarding sexual harassment, I don't see any need to cut any old person any slack. The basic position has to be zero tolerance. Residents and their families should be told that touching etc. will have serious consequences. Preferably financial ones, because that is what some people understand best.

Start calling the police and reporting it to them. Not that they'll do anything about it.