Care Needs Orientation Check

Moving around the home

Walks without helpManages with a cane, rail, or careful paceNeeds a person's support or a walker for most movesMostly bed- or chair-based

Bathing

Bathes alone safelyBathes alone, but the family worriesNeeds help with washing or getting in and outCannot bathe without full assistance

Meals and nutrition

Cooks and eats normallyEats fine, but cooking has become unreliableNeeds prepared food or reminders to eatNeeds help with eating itself

Medication

Manages medication aloneOccasional missed dosesNeeds daily reminders or a managed pillboxCannot manage medication at all

Memory and decisions

No notable changeRepeats questions; forgets recent events sometimesGets confused about time, place, or moneyNeeds supervision for safety most of the day

Errands and the outside world

Shops, banks, and travels aloneManages nearby errands; avoids anything fartherGoes out only with companyRarely or never leaves home

Answer all six areas to see the orientation result.

This is general orientation, not an assessment. Japan's actual care level is decided only by the municipal certification process: a 74-item home investigation, the attending doctor's opinion, and an expert board. Conditions also differ in ways no questionnaire captures, so treat the result as a conversation starter for the community support center or a care professional, never as a prediction of the official outcome.

What this check is, and is not

Japan's official care levels are decided by the municipal certification process: a 74-item investigation at the person's home, the attending doctor's written opinion, and an expert review board. No questionnaire reproduces that, and this one does not try. What it does is compress the question families actually face (is it time to do something, and what?) into the six areas professionals look at first, and point each pattern toward its practical next step.

Whatever the result, two things are always safe to do: record what you observed, with dates, because the certification process goes better with concrete examples; and talk to the community support center for the parent's address, which is free and exists for exactly this conversation. Our guide to care levels in Japan explains the official scale, and the cost simulator shows the budget shape once a level is in view.

When the answer is "apply"

We help families get from worry to a working application.

Recording the situation, contacting the right municipal office, preparing for the home investigation, and keeping family abroad in the loop: that sequence is exactly what we coordinate.

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Does the situation point to care yet?

What this check is, and is not

We help families get from worry to a working application.

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