Labor shortages at elderly care facilities in Ishikawa Prefecture have been exacerbated by the New Year’s Day earthquake.

Some workers are quitting because of the increased work burden or other disaster-related reasons.

Other staff members have been forced to seek shelter at the care facilities as evacuees because their homes were severely damaged in the quake.

Outside help is trickling in, but many nursing care facilities in other parts of Japan are already short-staffed and cannot spare any workers.

One nursing care center in Wajima is looking after 126 senior citizens, including many who were already residents at the retirement home.

About 40 workers are doing their best to provide care, but the lack of running water has increased the burden.

The facility employs four nurses. But one was hospitalized because of the long post-disaster working hours. The other three are themselves getting on in age and say they have reached their physical limit.

On Jan. 12, six care workers from neighboring Toyama Prefecture came to the facility to provide support.

They were registered under a system set up by the Japanese Council of Senior Citizens Welfare Service, whose local branches compile lists of staff who can help out in nearby jurisdictions.

One male care worker, 33, normally works as a functional training instructor in Toyama.

But at the Wajima facility, he worked from 6 a.m. until 7 p.m. on Jan. 13, assisting residents who needed help eating and using the toilet. He also massaged the hands and feet of the residents.

“There were some people who could get around before the quake but whose functions have since fallen,” he said.

At another facility in Anamizu in Ishikawa Prefecture, residents’ beds were moved into hallways to avoid water leaks from the ceiling.

The facility is home to about 30 people, and there is very little space to move around, particularly with the beds now in the way.

One nurse said the residents were not getting even half of their regular exercise.

With no running water, residents cannot take baths and have had to be wiped with towels by staff about once a week.

If the situation continues, the seniors will be at increased risk of catching infectious diseases, developing thrombosis and growing physically weaker.

Staff were commuting from evacuation centers and working in shifts to maintain sustainability.

According to a health ministry study, 200 facilities for senior citizens and 40 for disabled people in the three prefectures of Ishikawa, Niigata and Toyama were damaged in the Jan. 1 quake.

As of Jan. 15, 115 of those facilities still had no water supply.

Care workers from outside those three prefectures are being dispatched from other parts of Japan to serve as reinforcements.

Networks for such dispatches were set up following the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake and the 2016 Kumamoto Earthquakes.

One network that is providing welfare relief to the Noto area is based on a system set up by nonprofit organization Sakura Net in Hyogo Prefecture.

Yukinori Goto, an executive of Sakura Net, and others visited 12 facilities in Wajima and Nanao in Ishikawa Prefecture on Jan. 6 and 7 to provide relief supplies and determine other needs of the residents.

At that time, all 12 facilities were without water.

Officials were also worried that staff members working without rest were reaching their psychological limit.

Almost all the facilities said they desperately needed care workers.

“We will continue to provide support depending on what the facilities decide to do,” Goto said.

He said some facilities planned to continue providing care, but others were considering evacuating all residents.

The health ministry has called on other prefectural governments to estimate how many care workers they can make available to help out in the Noto region. Those prefectures have sounded out local care facilities.

The health ministry was told that about 1,700 care workers from 43 prefectures could be dispatched by the end of February.

Eighteen were sent to Ishikawa Prefecture on Jan. 15, and an additional 20 to 30 workers could arrive by the end of the week.

The national network to dispatch care workers was established after the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake. The health ministry decides which type of care workers are most needed in areas hit by natural disasters.

But the nationwide chronic worker shortage is preventing many facilities from helping out.

One facility in the Kansai region that dispatched workers after the Kumamoto quakes eight years ago has decided not to send anyone to the Noto region. It said its hands are already full taking care of those residing in its facility.

(This article was written by Shinichi Sekine, Haruna Ishikawa, Misako Yamauchi and Yasusaburo Nakamura.)