The population on isolated islands of Japan is rapidly aging. As it is very difficult for isolated islands to respond to the increasing costs of welfare for the elderly, it is necessary to make welfare services more efficient. Offering welfare services for the elderly with the help of information technology such as tele-medicine are effective in the way of overcoming geographical disadvantages.
In this paper, we describe current state of welfare services and needs of computerization and networking on isolated islands by questionnaire survey. Also to see issues involved in computerizing welfare systems suited for isolated islands, an empirical testing was done.
We asked officers at local governments about states of supply of welfare services on isolated islands. After the installation of long-term care insurance and fulfillment of services on the mainland such as home help service, home-visit nursing care service and visiting bath service, people have turned their interest more in the quality of services than quantity. On the contrary, on isolated islands where the service standard is low, there are great differences in the situations. Many islands do not have several of the main services.
By empirical testing we confirm that welfare information systems are effective in improving quality of services by increasing efficiency of work. The reasons why simple welfare information systems are appreciated on isolated islands, can be found in the existence of daily communication between aged people and specialist personnel, and the existence of volunteers with PC skills. Thus simple welfare information systems do not need special personnel to operate, and are suitable for small scale local governments on isolated islands.