A STUDY ON THE CURRENT STATE AND RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN STAYING ASPECTS AND SPATIAL COMPOSITION OF THE SMALL-SCALL ELDERLY CARE FACILITIES BASED ON DAY SERVICE

This paper looks at the current state in Japan of small-scale elder care facilities—basically, day-care type facilities—and the effect that the spatial characteristics of such facilities have on the elderly during their stay.First, we gathered information on the overall condition of these facilities by questionnaires and hearing surveys. Secondly, after an observational survey was conducted, we compiled a summary of the users' daily life and activities and the facilities according to their spatial characteristics. Finally, after analyzing the relationship between the spatial composition of these facilities and how the elderly spend their time there, we discovered various types of room usage and organized this information by the relationship between spatial composition and user attributes. Consequently, we found the following:1) Small-scale elder care facilities provide flexible services according to users' physical conditions and family needs. These are additional services to home care support services. 2) These small-scale facilities are distinct in character because many, differentiated activities can be observed at the same time. This is because there is wide variety in the location and type of these activities as well as the size of the group. 3) The daily life and activities of users at each of these facilities resemble each other irrespective of the type of building or service, but the room or space where users choose to stay and feel comfortable, and how they spend their time in that place, varies according to the spatial composition of these facilities.