Toshihiro Horiguchi
Background: Japan implemented new legislation to prevent the abuse of persons with disabilities on Oct 1, 2012. Many specialists from various domains participated in the development of interventions to prevent such abuse. Here, we conducted a pilot analysis to examine the cost of such interventions and to explore differences in caseloads. In particular, we compared caseloads for the assistance of victims with mental disabilities with those for the assistance of victims with other disabilities.
Methods and Findings: We requested the enrollment of the anonymous case records of 16 local governments. Thirteen municipal/certified centers reported 41 cases, including 42 victims. Of them, 12 victims had mental disabilities. We calculated both the time and human/social resources consumed per case until the resolution of the case. The median length of time from the start of the intervention until the solution of the claimed crisis was 162 days for the cases with mental disabilities, compared with 129 days for the other cases. However, an analysis of 22 familial cases did not reveal a significant relation between the type of disability and the caseload. Conclusions: Although the existence of mental disabilities did not seem to impact the caseload, our method of analysis worked well. The accumulation of more cases is warranted.
