[The practice of community based medicine in Nagoya City--role of home care for patients with neurodegenerative diseases].

Patients with neurodegenerative diseases by definition, experience slowly progressive aggravation of their condition; in the terminal stage many patients need some special management, tube feeding or suction, and thus home care is often difficult. For home care management, communication among all those involved, namely, medical staff, patients and their families, home doctor, nurse, physical therapist, helper and hospital, is very important. The results of a questionnaire we sent to the patients' families, clearly showed that they would hope to take home care as long as possible, be able to consult the specialists any time and have a reliable care-manager.