45% of Families Who Placed a Parent in a Nursing Home Report Feeling Guilty, Yet 89% Confirm Positive Changes After Admission

Caresul Kaigo (https://caresul-kaigo.jp/), a search and review site for nursing homes operated by Speee Inc. (Headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo; CEO: Hideki Otsuka; TSE Standard: 4499), conducted an analysis of testimonials to understand the conflict and guilt families experience during the decision-making process of admitting a family member to a nursing home, and how they overcome it. Admitting a loved one to a care facility is a choice that not only significantly changes the resident's life but also carries a heavy psychological burden for the decision-making family. We delved deep into this reality through 20-30 minute phone interviews with a dedicated interviewer (*).

This study analyzed 1,045 testimonials from the 1,646 published on "Caresul Kaigo" between June 2025 and April 2026, for which hearing results on conflict and guilt at the time of the decision were available. The analysis revealed that 45.5% (475 cases) of families spoke of guilt or remorse. On the other hand, 88.6% of the families who expressed guilt reported positive changes after admission, a figure 11.8 percentage points higher than families who did not mention guilt (76.8%).

**【Survey Results Summary】**

* 45.5% (475 out of 1,045 cases) of families expressed guilt or remorse when deciding on admission. * The remaining 54.5% (570 cases) of families did not mention guilt during the admission decision. * In the process of in-depth phone interviews, over 40% of families expressed feelings such as "guilt," "feeling sorry," and "hesitation." * The most frequently mentioned conflict was "self-blame/guilt (feeling guilty, sorry, remorseful)" (45.5%), followed by "resistance/conflict of wills from the person" (29.4%), and "difficulty in explaining/persuading" (22.1%). * Concrete descriptions that would not be captured in superficial surveys, such as "I was called a demon" and "feeling sorry for taking away their freedom," were confirmed through the interviews (multiple answers, N=1,045). * 88.6% of families who expressed guilt reported positive changes after admission. * Compared to families who did not express guilt, the group with guilt had an 11.8 percentage point higher rate of positive turnaround (no guilt: 76.8%). * The industry's only interview-based review format (*) records even the subtleties of emotions. * Dedicated interviewers conduct 20-30 minute phone interviews per case, repeatedly digging deeper to record the true feelings that standard questionnaires cannot capture.

**◼️ 45.5% of Families Spoke of Guilt at the Time of Admission Decision**

Of the 1,045 cases where hearing results on guilt at the time of admission were obtained, 475 families (45.5%) spoke of guilt or remorse, while 570 families (54.5%) did not mention guilt.

| Group | Number of Cases | Percentage | | ---------------------- | --------------- | ---------- | | With guilt/remorse | 475 cases | 45.5% | | No guilt (no mention) | 570 cases | 54.5% | | Total | 1,045 cases | 100.0% |

An analysis of the hearing results regarding guilt and remorse at the time of the admission decision confirmed that 475 out of 1,045 families (45.5%) spoke of guilt or remorse during the interviews. On the other hand, 570 families (54.5%) did not mention guilt, with some stating they were "rather relieved" or "thought it was the right decision to leave it to the professionals," indicating that more than half of the cases viewed the admission decision positively.

In the interviews, raw descriptions like the following were confirmed from families who spoke of their conflict:

This case, where the family decided on admission to avoid caregiver burnout despite facing strong rejection from the person, was confirmed in interviews as a typical example of conflict. The in-depth interviews revealed a structure where, even if families understand intellectually that admission to a nursing home is the "best choice," they cannot fully affirm that choice emotionally.

**◼️ The Most Common Conflict is "Guilt," Followed by "The Person's Resistance" and "Feeling Sorry"**

Number of occurrences by conflict type out of 1,045 hearing results on guilt and conflict (multiple answers). The percentage is the ratio to 1,045 cases.

| Conflict Type | Number of Cases | Percentage | | -------------------------------------------------- | --------------- | ---------- | | (Multiple answers among 1,045 cases) | | | | Self-blame/guilt (guilty, sorry, remorseful) | 475 cases | 45.5% | | Person's resistance/conflict (disliked, refused) | 307 cases | 29.4% | | Difficulty explaining/persuading (pain of not being understood) | 231 cases | 22.1% | | Loneliness/sadness of separation (being apart, not being able to meet) | 131 cases | 12.5% | | Indecisiveness (anxiety about whether it was the right thing to do) | 124 cases | 11.9% | | Exhaustion/limit (burnout, can't do it anymore) | 123 cases | 11.8% | | Pity/feeling of abandonment (pity, feeling like abandoning them) | 42 cases | 4.0% |

The conflict types were divided...