This book discusses the building of comprehensive community support systems, which constitutes a key issue in social security reforms in Japan. The book comprises three parts: (I) Mapping Social Security in Japan, (II) Community-Based Integrated Care Systems in Japan, and (III) A Prospect of Community-Based Inclusive Society in Japan. The chapters in this book were composed on the basis of research into community-based integrated care systems and community-based inclusive society, conducted by members of the Association of Japanese Geographers’ Study Group “Regional Issues Related to the Birthrate Decline and Population Aging.” Choosing local governments with different regional characteristics, the authors conducted empirical research to uncover the characteristics of comprehensive community support systems, building processes, and challenges in the respective local governments. Non-Japanese readers will acquire an understanding of the characteristics of social security and the trends of the reforms in Japan. To support its use as a reference book, chapters in Part I include numerous maps and figures with the themes of welfare, medical care, and health levels in Japan.

This book discusses the building of comprehensive community support systems, which constitutes a key issue in social security reforms in Japan. The book comprises three parts: (I) Mapping Social Security in Japan, (II) Community-Based Integrated Care Systems in Japan, and (III) A Prospect of Community-Based Inclusive Society in Japan. The chapters in this book were composed on the basis of research into community-based integrated care systems and community-based inclusive society, conducted by members of the Association of Japanese Geographers' Study Group "Regional Issues Related to the Birthrate Decline and Population Aging." Choosing local governments with different regional characteristics, the authors conducted empirical research to uncover the characteristics of comprehensive community support systems, building processes, and challenges in the respective local governments. Non-Japanese readers will acquire an understanding of the characteristics of social security and the trends of the reforms in Japan. To support its use as a reference book, chapters in Part I include numerous maps and figures with the themes of welfare, medical care, and health levels in Japan.

Integrating Social Care into the Delivery of Health Care: Moving Upstream to Improve the Nation's Health was released in September 2019, before the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic in March 2020. Improving social conditions remains critical to improving health outcomes, and integrating social care into health care delivery is more relevant than ever in the context of the pandemic and increased strains placed on the U.S. health care system. The report and its related products ultimately aim to help improve health and health equity, during COVID-19 and beyond. The consistent and compelling evidence on how social determinants shape health has led to a growing recognition throughout the health care sector that improving health and health equity is likely to depend â€" at least in part â€" on mitigating adverse social determinants. This recognition has been bolstered by a shift in the health care sector towards value-based payment, which incentivizes improved health outcomes for persons and populations rather than service delivery alone. The combined result of these changes has been a growing emphasis on health care systems addressing patients' social risk factors and social needs with the aim of improving health outcomes. This may involve health care systems linking individual patients with government and community social services, but important questions need to be answered about when and how health care systems should integrate social care into their practices and what kinds of infrastructure are required to facilitate such activities. Integrating Social Care into the Delivery of Health Care: Moving Upstream to Improve the Nation's Health examines the potential for integrating services addressing social needs and the social determinants of health into the delivery of health care to achieve better health outcomes. This report assesses approaches to social care integration currently being taken by health care providers and systems, and new or emerging approaches and opportunities; current roles in such integration by different disciplines and organizations, and new or emerging roles and types of providers; and current and emerging efforts to design health care systems to improve the nation's health and reduce health inequities.

We live in a rapidly aging world, in which people who are age 60 and older outnumber children under the age of five. This book reveals large and growing gaps in care for older adults in countries at all income levels and shows how to leverage reforms for improving health outcomes for older adults and create healthier, more prosperous communities. Aimed at policy makers and other health and development stakeholders who want to promote healthier aging, Silver Opportunity compiles the latest evidence on care needs and gaps for aging populations. It argues that primary health care should be the cornerstone of integrated service delivery for older people, but primary health care systems must first build their capacity to respond to older people’s health needs. It presents an original framework for policy action to advance primary health care†“centered, integrated senior care; documents the experiences of pioneering countries in delivering community-based care to older people; and provides recommendations for decision-makers. The framework presents four policy levers with which to improve health care for seniors—financing, innovation, regulation, and evaluation and measurement—or FIRE. Finally, the book posits that by acting now, countries can leverage population aging to accelerate progress toward health equity and universal health coverage.

Japan has achieved a comparatively high level of well-being: skill levels are high, unemployment is low and life expectancy at birth is the highest in the OECD. Since its launch in 2013, Abenomics has had a positive effect on the economy, and per capita output growth has picked up. However, to ...

Developing countries may not have full-fledged welfare states like those we find in Europe, but certainly they have welfare state systems. For comparative social policy research, the term "welfare state systems" has many advantages, as there are numerous different types/models of welfare state systems around the world. This revised and expanded second edition brings together leading experts to discuss social policy in 32 countries/regions around the world: from the most advanced welfare state systems in Scandinavia and Western Central Europe to the developing powers of Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, and Russia. Country-specific chapters provide in general a historical overview, discuss major characteristics of the welfare state system, and analyze country-specific problems, as well as critical current and future trends for further discussions, while also providing one (additional) major focal point/issue for greater in-depth analysis. Including new country case studies on Mali, South Africa, Iceland, Spain, Italy, Greece, and Vietnam, this book is reframed around urgent contemporary issues including migration and rising social inequalities, LGBTQIA+ rights, universal basic income, and transboundary social policy. It will be of great interest to all scholars and students of social policy, social development, development economists and health economists, experts in public policy, health policy (including mental health policy), housing policy, education policy, family policy, cis- and trans-gender policy, migration and population policy, sociology, social work, anthropology, as well as social policy and public policy makers and administrators.

In the United States, some populations suffer from far greater disparities in health than others. Those disparities are caused not only by fundamental differences in health status across segments of the population, but also because of inequities in factors that impact health status, so-called determinants of health. Only part of an individual's health status depends on his or her behavior and choice; community-wide problems like poverty, unemployment, poor education, inadequate housing, poor public transportation, interpersonal violence, and decaying neighborhoods also contribute to health inequities, as well as the historic and ongoing interplay of structures, policies, and norms that shape lives. When these factors are not optimal in a community, it does not mean they are intractable: such inequities can be mitigated by social policies that can shape health in powerful ways. Communities in Action: Pathways to Health Equity seeks to delineate the causes of and the solutions to health inequities in the United States. This report focuses on what communities can do to promote health equity, what actions are needed by the many and varied stakeholders that are part of communities or support them, as well as the root causes and structural barriers that need to be overcome.