Benefits of and Issues Regarding Sick Child Care for Children and Their Parents

Ikuko Sobue

doi:10.33790/jcnrc1100101

Abstract

Aim: We surveyed users of sick child care services about the benefits of and issues regarding such care, in order to obtain an insight into its practice. Methods: The study subjects comprised a total of 144 parents whose children had used any of the 15 sick child care facilities in Prefecture A in 2015. These parents consented to participate in the study. Using a quantitative and qualitative method, we surveyed them about their usage of sick child care, care-related requests, as well as perceived benefits and difficulties. Results: Sick child care was used mainly by children from either double-income nuclear families (n=123) or single-mother households (n=12) because of infectious diseases. The systems for reducing care fees were utilized by 58% of the single mothers. Subjects viewed the following factors as the benefits of sick child care: 1) a sense of ease achieved through appropriate and professional childcare, 2) being able to work free from anxiety, 3) a reduced burden on children and their normal development, and 4) child raising support for parents. On the basis of difficulties in utilizing sick child care, parents desired improvement in care services, such as an increase in the number of both care facilities and days such care is available, and the capacity to accept children. Conclusions: The results of this study suggest that, to facilitate sick child care based on the needs of care service users, there is a need to increase the number of care facilities, and expand the capacity to accept children

Highlights

The Japanese government is adopting new systems for child rising in order to respond to changes in the child raising environment resulting from the expansion of women’s societal roles and the trend toward nuclear families [1]
As sick children may hinder their mothers from managing work and child raising, the government is promoting the systems for sick child care [2]
Patents are able to benefit from sick child care in terms of both work and child raising, and such care is beneficial for their children [5,6]

Summary

Introduction

The Japanese government is adopting new systems for child rising in order to respond to changes in the child raising environment resulting from the expansion of women’s societal roles and the trend toward nuclear families [1]. These systems aim to provide a wide range of child raising support, including improvement in parents’ employment situation in a manner enabling them to manage work and child raising. Patents are able to benefit from sick child care in terms of both work and child raising, and such care is beneficial for their children [5,6]. There have been reports on dissatisfaction with the sick child care systems and care fees, as well as on parents’ anxiety about infection [7,8,9]

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion