A Research Study on the Disaster Consciousness of Employees of Rehabilitation Facilities for the Disabled in Japan

This study aimed to improve the ability of employees of rehabilitation facilities for the disabled to cope with disaster situations by understanding and analyzing their disaster consciousness through questionnaire survey. The questionnaire survey had been conducted for employees of rehabilitation facilities for the disabled in Japan for three months. Among 932 rehabilitation facilities for the disabled, 41.8% answered that the areas where facilities reside are relatively safe from flood damages and 59.8% answered that they are relatively safe from earthquakes or their secondary damages, e.g., fire. This kinds of results may be considered to reflect the insensibility of safety. To protect the disabled who are vulnerable to unexpected disasters, the awareness of disasters of employees needs to be increased, the dangerous areas need to be identified and the efforts to find more effective methods for evacuation need to be made. Therefore, to improve the disaster consciousness of facilities' employees, countermeasures such as regular scheduled training and evacuation guidelines need to be developed. High percentage of facilities answered that they have not promoted the importance of early evacuation of disaster-vulnerable people. Besides, in disaster situation, the network with facilities, organizations in community and community residents is critical. Employees of rehabilitation facilities for the disabled, actual condition of disaster prevention, disaster consciousness kitagake@cc.saga-u.ac.jp(Keiko KITAGAWA) Asian J Human Services, 2013, 5:1-11. © 2013 Asian Society of Human Services Received