Initiatives of Supporters clubs
Miyagi Disaster Mental Health Care Center (MDMHCC)
Stem Center / Coordination Division
Manager / Psychiatric Social Worker / Takao Tanno
１．Introduction“Supports clubs” are projects that dispatch supporters club registrants (referred to hereafter as “supporters”) as
needed for no compensation to municipalities, regions, and institutions that request support from the Miyagi DisasterMental Health Care Center (henceforth, “Center”). Supporters include specialists (e.g., doctors, public health nurses,nurses, psychiatric social workers, social workers, occupational therapists, clinical psychologists, nursery teachers,etc.) who have a variety of skills relating to mental health welfare. This project was initiated in collaboration withmental health welfare specialists affiliated with associated organizations. Immediately after the opening of the center,
specialists such as doctors, psychiatric social workers, and public health nurses came to provide support from allover the country in day shifts. The number of registrants already is at 70 individuals. Currently, we are continuing
initiatives centering on prefectural residents with the collaboration of around ten supporters.
２．FY 2015 activity report（１） The number of supporters
In FY 2015, eight supporters were involved in the municipality- and Center-sponsored projects.
（２） Content of activities
Supporters operated the day camp and conduct resident support activities in municipalities (Yamamoto Town,Tagajo City).
① Cooperation with day camp operation
We implemented a day camp for local elementary school students and their parents in the coastal
suburbs of Sendai City but supporters participated as day staff for the outdoor activities, recreation,psychological education, and stress care programs.
② Cooperation with resident support in municipalities
Supporters cooperated with health consultation meetings for temporary housing residents and healthsupport centered on visits to victims.
Ａ. Yamamoto Town
We dispatched supporters to health consultation meetings for container type temporary housing
residents conducted by the Yamamoto town support center as part of the city’s health/lifestyle support
initiatives for victims. Health consultation meetings with supporters were conducted from May to
September in container type temporary housing meeting halls, which led to individual consultations.
Ｂ. Tagajo City
We dispatched individual support to residents at high health risk as part of Tagajo city’s
health/lifestyle support initiatives for victims. Center staff and supporters collaborated to provide
resident support.
－ 79 －The focus of the project was to visit residents who were at high health risk and to confirm theirhealth and housing status. Here, supporters advised them to connect with specialized consultation
institutions as necessary and to effectively respond to various post-disaster stresses and difficulties, aswell as support them on lifestyle aspects. Also, supporters provided secretarial support such as the datacollection of information relating to resident health (Table 1).
Table 1 Content of supporter activities (FY 2015)

ProjectManager

Category

ContentProfessions

FormNumberDays

Miyagi Disaster
Mental HealthCare CenterOperationcooperation(sponsored project)

Day staff at day camp
(outdoor activities,recreation, psychologicaleducation, relaxation)

DoctorNursery teachers
Psychiatric socialworker

Single61

YamamotoTown

Resident healthsupport

Health support for walk-in
consultations (fortemporary housingresidents)

Occupational
therapistSeries

113

Tagajo City

Resident healthsupportVisits (for high-risk
residents the followingsurvey) Office workNurseSeries

124

３． Future activities
A major point for the role that supporters have fulfilled was to respond to regional needs as rapidly as possible
and to fill in the gaps of insufficient support. Day camps required several staff members to provide detailed
support to participants. By having specialists such as child psychiatrists, nursery teachers, and psychiatric social
workers as supporters here, we were able to arrange a system to support the mental changes in children andprovide an environment in which parents could participate in a relaxed manner. Additionally, resident support inmunicipalities demanded that we provide locations where residents can consult with us in a relaxed manner andrespond to visiting activities. Residents who live in container type temporary housing for long periods have highlevels of stress and many feel left behind or hopeless. We are concerned about situations where individuals cannot(or do not) request support for themselves and the resident support projects in municipalities demanded that weprovide support for individuals whose desire for assistance has decreased. And so, it is thought that we were able
to more rapidly check on the status of residents with high health risk and provide consultation support by having
specialists who understand these regional situations very well as supporters in these contexts.
The current status is such that few specialists can be recruited to address needs centered on resident support.
Future developments will likely need to use our center staff and supporters to fill in the gaps of support until
regional care workers become sufficiently trained.

－ 80 －