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The revitalization of “Osekkai”: How the COVID-19 pandemic has emphasized the importance of Japanese voluntary social work

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has caused worldwide panic, and rural areas are no exception. In Japanese rural areas, many older people live alone and lack access to reliable sources of information. During the pandemic, older adults were initially isolated from their communities because of the...

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Autores principales: Ohta, Ryuichi, Yata, Akiko
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: SAGE Publications 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8263367/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34253984
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1473325020973343
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author Ohta, Ryuichi
Yata, Akiko
author_facet Ohta, Ryuichi
Yata, Akiko
author_sort Ohta, Ryuichi
collection PubMed
description Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has caused worldwide panic, and rural areas are no exception. In Japanese rural areas, many older people live alone and lack access to reliable sources of information. During the pandemic, older adults were initially isolated from their communities because of the recommended social isolation measures, even when there were no cases in rural communities. However, various formal and informal caregivers went beyond their usual roles and tried to reconnect the older rural population with their communities and nurtured their social connections; Japanese community workers mitigated the stress and fear experienced by the rural elderly in the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, this pandemic encouraged rural Japanese customs. One such custom is “Osekkai.” The Japanese word Osekkai describes actions that someone considers useful and meaningful to perform for others. Osekkai involves both formal and informal care, and as social gatherings began to disappear, Osekkai allowed individuals to deal with the various social problems created by the pandemic. Conferences based on Osekkai can strengthen rural people’s connections and improve their social capital. Activities of rural people that are constructed through Osekkai conferences are not only evidence-based but also based on reliance. This unprecedented pandemic has taught us not only the importance of usual healthcare and precautions against infection but also that nurturing social connection in communities is crucial in the face of social turbulence.
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spelling pubmed-82633672021-07-08 The revitalization of “Osekkai”: How the COVID-19 pandemic has emphasized the importance of Japanese voluntary social work Ohta, Ryuichi Yata, Akiko Qual Soc Work Articles Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has caused worldwide panic, and rural areas are no exception. In Japanese rural areas, many older people live alone and lack access to reliable sources of information. During the pandemic, older adults were initially isolated from their communities because of the recommended social isolation measures, even when there were no cases in rural communities. However, various formal and informal caregivers went beyond their usual roles and tried to reconnect the older rural population with their communities and nurtured their social connections; Japanese community workers mitigated the stress and fear experienced by the rural elderly in the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, this pandemic encouraged rural Japanese customs. One such custom is “Osekkai.” The Japanese word Osekkai describes actions that someone considers useful and meaningful to perform for others. Osekkai involves both formal and informal care, and as social gatherings began to disappear, Osekkai allowed individuals to deal with the various social problems created by the pandemic. Conferences based on Osekkai can strengthen rural people’s connections and improve their social capital. Activities of rural people that are constructed through Osekkai conferences are not only evidence-based but also based on reliance. This unprecedented pandemic has taught us not only the importance of usual healthcare and precautions against infection but also that nurturing social connection in communities is crucial in the face of social turbulence. SAGE Publications 2021-03 /pmc/articles/PMC8263367/ /pubmed/34253984 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1473325020973343 Text en © The Author(s) 2020 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
spellingShingle Articles
Ohta, Ryuichi
Yata, Akiko
The revitalization of “Osekkai”: How the COVID-19 pandemic has emphasized the importance of Japanese voluntary social work
title The revitalization of “Osekkai”: How the COVID-19 pandemic has emphasized the importance of Japanese voluntary social work
title_full The revitalization of “Osekkai”: How the COVID-19 pandemic has emphasized the importance of Japanese voluntary social work
title_fullStr The revitalization of “Osekkai”: How the COVID-19 pandemic has emphasized the importance of Japanese voluntary social work
title_full_unstemmed The revitalization of “Osekkai”: How the COVID-19 pandemic has emphasized the importance of Japanese voluntary social work
title_short The revitalization of “Osekkai”: How the COVID-19 pandemic has emphasized the importance of Japanese voluntary social work
title_sort revitalization of “osekkai”: how the covid-19 pandemic has emphasized the importance of japanese voluntary social work
topic Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8263367/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34253984
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1473325020973343
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