EDITORIAL: Fires at group homes

A group home is a house or an apartment where elderly patients with dementia live together with the help of caregivers. Careful assistance offered by staff in a family-like atmosphere is said to help curb the symptoms of dementia.

The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare also considers the group home as the ace in the hole for nursing elderly dementia patients. More than 130,000 people used group homes in 2008, a nearly 25-fold increase from 2000, when the public nursing-care insurance program started.

According to government estimates, in 20 years, more than a quarter of all households in the nation will consist of a single elderly person living alone or an elderly couple alone. The number of elderly dementia patients will more than double to 4.45 million. Group homes will increase their presence, becoming a matter familiar with the entire public.

Despite this importance, the individual group homes around the country face serious problems regarding safety. Saturday's fire at a group home in Sapporo that killed seven people brought that danger home to us.

Many residents at the nursing home could not walk without assistance. Naturally the home was required to take special precautions against fire. However, the home commonly used kerosene stoves with laundry hanging nearby. Moreover, the home had no sprinklers, which are crucial for extinguishing fires at an early stage.

There was another group home fire four years ago in Omura, Nagasaki Prefecture, which spurred an improvement in fire prevention measures at nursing homes. At that time, only about 10 percent of the facilities were legally required to install sprinklers.

But the Fire and Disaster Management Agency tightened the standards last spring, which effectively obliged about 70 percent of all group homes, with the exception of small-sized homes, to install sprinklers.

Cost was the reason not all group homes were required to install sprinklers. Operators of group homes and the welfare ministry opposed the tighter standards, saying, "The increased costs will only add to the burden on users of the facilities," and, "Many homes will have to close as they cannot afford the installation."

The group home in Sapporo was exempted from the obligation to install sprinklers. Because of the cost problem, existing homes, including the Sapporo home, are also given a reprieve until spring 2012 from the requirement to install fire alarms. The tragic fire took place under these circumstances.

Japanese society will need a growing number of these facilities. Shouldn't the government shift away from its approach of gradually tightening regulations each time a tragedy occurs?

To help group homes finance the heavy costs for safety devices, the government should provide subsidies or enable homes to cover such costs with nursing-care benefits.

According to the welfare ministry's standards, one night-shift worker is allowed to look after a maximum of 18 elderly residents. However, once a fire breaks out, it will be difficult for only one person to safely evacuate all the residents.

Some group homes have put together a system that enables them to seek help from their neighbors in case of fire. This system should spread. Local governments should aggressively promote this endeavor.

It is the responsibility of the public as a whole to create an environment in which the elderly can live safely with a sense of security. There is no reason whatsoever to refrain from sharing the necessary and sufficient costs for that objective.

--The Asahi Shimbun, March 15