Wisdom to make communication resilient to the crisis: Learning from a Japanese community and social worker

ABSTRACT

Isolation is one of the most critical factors related to older people’s health. However, to prevent COVID-19, community socialisation among the elderly has halted. Because of older people’s limited access to information technology, they cannot maintain external communication easily, and even several weeks of isolation from others could be detrimental to their health. How we sustain communication with and among the elderly is currently and will continue to be a considerable challenge in community work in Japan. In addition to contextualised information on Japanese community care for social welfare before and after the pandemic, the case of a social worker and her community is introduced. From her practices, wisdom in communication processes that can make communities more resilient to crisis can be gained and be of use in Japan and other Asian countries.

KEYWORDS:

• Community care
• communication
• COVID-19
• lockdown
• isolation

Acknowledgments

I am lucky to work with Ms. Kamiya and her staff members as well as Mr. Kazuotoshi Shibata, chief of the Kosai Chamber of Commerce, over the last four years. From them, I have learnt how community care and development can become more sustainable within the local community.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Yoko Kawamura

Yoko Kawamura earned PhD at School of Public Health, University of Alabama at Birmingham, in the United States, in 2006. She specializes in health communication, conducting practical research on themes that are directly related to issues collaborating communities such as local communities, companies, and hospitals. Overreaching theme is development of healthy and sound communities where members fully live their own lives.