Why So Many People Die Alone Case Study

When you are dying, do you think there is someone attending your deathbed? In Japan, the existence of people who die alone is a social problem. There are about 30,000 people who die alone annually; since about 150,000 people die at their home, it is estimated that 20% of them die alone. Moreover, the number of people dying alone is increasing. For example, in Tokyo's 23 wards, 1,123 people died alone in 1987, but in 2017, there are 3,395 people who died alone, which means the amount of dying alone has been more than doubled during the past 20 years. Then, why so many people die alone and what is the solution to reduce such sad situations? As the reason for dying alone, two factors can be considered. First, the number of people living alone …show more content…
The first way is, after all, to take care of people who live alone with the neighbors, because it is the key to notice quickly that something strange happen. For example, "Tokiwadaira Danchi" is famous for its local monitor program. There are 5300households and 8000people, and the percentage of the population aged 65 or older is more than 40%. The residents' association is active and has been working on the project to reduce the lonely death since 2003. The core of the project is a patrol of elderly people living alone in the evening. The members of the residents' association check the light of outside and consider something is strange, ring a bell. Moreover, a cafe is opened every day and becomes a place to communicate with another residence. Besides those, they work on many other things. Although the number of the people who die alone is not zero, it is half what it was ten years ago and remains steady. From this, it is deduced that the local community plays an important role to decrease the number of the lonely …show more content…
An involvement of a public lightens the burden on volunteers especially commissioned welfare volunteers. Though working without pay, they have some degree of responsibility. However, there are few people who help or advise them; thus they are apt to be isolated. Such a great burden of volunteer hinders people from working as volunteers. Being concerned in an official can take over the burden. Furthermore, since watch programs may be a private problem, public agents are more reliable than private volunteers. And in the emergency situation, it is difficult to judge whether enter the house, because there is a possibility that it is considered as an intrusion. In that case, a public such as the police is hardly accused of entering a house. Therefore, it is vital that a public has responsibility for a watch program.
It is not enough that only one position of the three copes with an increase of dying alone. The combination of the three is essential to solve the problem. As the birthrate declines and the population ages, the death has not remained in a family, but it becomes a social problem. In these times, people must be conscious that the whole society should cope with the