Action Plan
Miyagi Prefecture Mental Health Welfare Association
Chairman - Hiroo Matsuoka(Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry)
Four years have passed since the Great East Japan Earthquake, and as the reconstruction progresses,
newer problems have continued to occur. These problems include (1) the news and measures for mental
health care constantly changing in Japan as a whole, for example, revision of the Suicide Comprehensive
Measures Charter and the Mental Health Welfare Law alongside a review of the medical planning system
including the psychiatric emergency system, a 5-year plan to promote dementia measures. (2) The field ofpsychiatry undergoing remarkable changes in the development of neuroscience and the revision ofinternational diagnostic standards for the classification of mental illnesses. I have been involved in
psychiatry for nearly 40 years. The latter half (of the 40 years) with the addition of the Great East Japan
Earthquake, has been an era of “turbulence,” with many situations in which previously believed customs
and common sense were denied and ways of thinking had to be corrected.
In the National University Corporation, to which I belong, organizational reforms have progressed
rapidly in the past 10 years. The university’s system is evolving from one of passive management as
instructed in the past by the government (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology),
to a system where the university itself is strengthening its governance and is incorporating independent
decision-making and consensus-building. Although there are greater responsibilities, there is also increased
freedom. Greater goals will be achieved if this system works successfully.
In this turbulent era, for the past to not be modeled, a thorough analysis of the current situation and asophisticated plan of action for the future was indispensable. An eye-catching event in the field of mental
health care internationally was the proposal of a National Project for the next 20 years, created by more than
450 experts over two years with the United Kingdom at its center. This project summarized the needs ateach age, from childhood to old-age1, to strengthen mental resources. More recently, a project wasannounced on a global scale by the European Union titled “ROAMER (Roadmap for Mental HealthResearch in Europe)”, as a "plan for mental health research2." It also described plans for the promotion ofmental health throughout life, prevention and early intervention, treatment and rehabilitation of mental
illness, care and recovery, and social participation issues. In each case, the missing portions and the ones
that required strengthening, are analyzed based on a detailed current review.
To endure change, instead of lamenting the current situation, it is necessary to learn from successes
and failures, clarify current problems, and take initiative to change them. A long-term action plan is also
required to recover from the earthquake.
1. Beddington J, et al: The mental wealth of nations. Nature 455 (7216): 1057-1060, 2008
2. Haro JM, et al: ROAMER: Roadmap for mental health research in Europe. Int J Methods Psychiatr Res
23 (Suppl 1): 1-14, 2014