ABSTRACT

Following the measures of mitigating COVID-19 transmission (e.g., restriction of face-to-face contacts), senior welfare centers have changed in ways of providing their services from face-to-face to non-face-to-face contacts. The purpose of this study was to find out the basis for preparing for any potential situation in which face-to-face contacts would be limited in the long term by identifying the current state of service provision methods. The state of 60 senior welfare centers was surveyed in September 2020 around the second stage of social distancing. As a result, most of the services except essential services at the centers were provided to the older adults in a non-face-to-face manner. In addition, the activity services for them were converted to extramural activities such as cleaning streets or environment, campaigns of infection prevention, community walking training programs, and so on. However, the citizens, who are direct charity cases from the centers, were not able to access effectually the services provided in the non-face-to-face manner. It was discussed that the centers have been in desperate need of seeking effective access for older adults.