2022 Japan Best Practice Winner
THE PROBLEM
Many facilities that provide care for older adults with dementia face two challenges. The first is that while individualized care is especially important for older adults with dementia, care at many facilities tends to be standardized due to a variety of factors. How can caregiving be improved to promote self-reliance and allow people with dementia to live the life they want to live? The second challenge is a lack of objective and reproducible indicators. The provision of nursing care is often left to the subjectivity and judgment of the individual caregivers, making it difficult to determine the effectiveness of the care provided.
THE INNOVATION
Medical Care Service (MCS) was founded in 1999, and quickly recognized the need for dementia care facilities exclusively for those diagnosed with dementia who are in need of care. As of 2025, they have more than 300 group homes and nursing homes throughout Japan and have also expanded their work to China. They define their mission as “transforming social environments surrounding dementia.”
To ensure that the care they provide reflects the individual characteristics of each resident and allows residents to live the way they want to, MCS established an evidence-based system, “MCS Care that Promotes Self-Reliance.” This care focuses on a secondary cause of dementia, the deterioration of physical activity, and primarily consists of medically based adjustments to areas such as hydration, nutrition, exercise, oral function, posture, mobility, and medication. In addition, the facilities make use of individual care records, nutritional guidance, and exercise guidance given by rehabilitation specialists.
This approach resulted in significant improvements in residents’ general condition as well as behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD), and the rate of improvement in both BPSD and physical functions was about 85%. The results led to a review of prescription medications and a reduction in medical costs.
Training programs are provided for facility heads and staff, focusing on teaching staff to evaluate nutritional status and physical functions, and how to lead exercise programs according to each resident’s needs. This was necessary because it is important for on-site staff to observe and record the progress of implementation and to provide care according to changes in physical and mental conditions. Staff hold monthly meetings to share their residents’ progress. The company collects data and tracks all of the residents’ progress, which they then use to constantly verify and revise their methods.
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