Buddhist Temples As Driving Force of Dementia-friendly Society: a Qualitative Analysis of Community-based Integrated Care in Buddhist Temple Caregiver Cafés

Objective: Outside the Japanese government's community-based integrated care system, Buddhist temples are emerging as a resource to support caregivers of individuals with dementia living at home. However, we must critically analyze the views of secular professionals who are familiar with these activities. Thus, this study aimed to explore the characteristics and potential of caregiver cafés hosted in Buddhist temples from the perspective of healthcare and welfare professionals providing community-based integrated care by conducting two-step research: (1) a preliminary survey with Buddhist priests to understand the phenomenon; and (2) semi-structured interviews with staff providing community-based integrated care to explore its implementation.

Results: According to 13 Buddhist priests who organized the caregiver cafés, most temples held cafés once every month or two, while all collaborated with the community-based integrated care system. A thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews of 15 healthcare and welfare professionals identified two major categories ("temples as social resources" and "temples and priests leveraging their strengths") and six subcategories from 143 discourses. The results indicated that temples and priests could be important social resources in community-based care systems by utilizing caregiver cafés in a society facing a shortage of care workers and an increasing number of individuals requiring care.