Social worker initiatives for alcohol-related problems after theearthquake
Support activities report from the Japan Social Worker
Association for Alcohol-Related Problems in Ishinomaki CityJapan Social Worker Association for Alcohol-Related Problems
Disaster support projects / Sakae Fujita
Introduction
Five years have passed since the Great East Japan Earthquake and recovery in the disaster area has beenslowly but surely advancing with the help of regional infrastructure maintenance projects. However, it has
become increasingly clear that community development requires more time due to various factors. It has beenfive years in 2015 since initiatives for alcohol-related problems began in Ishinomaki City after the 2011
earthquake. Workshop projects in 2015 were sponsored by the Eastern health welfare office (Ishinomaki publichealth center) and co-hosted by the Miyagi Disaster Mental Health Care Center and the Japan Social Worker
Association for Alcohol-related Problems (ASW Association), with consultations and individual support
provided in coordination with the Ishinomaki City Health Promotion Division. Local assistance has given us
more power to respond to difficult-to-handle problems. This text provides an FY2015 activity report which
includes the content and achievements of our support, as well as future challenges.
１． Purpose of activities
The current project provides care for residents with alcohol-related problems after the Great East Japan
Earthquake and recovery support for stable lifestyles in Ishinomaki City, Miyagi Prefecture. The project also
supplies necessary knowledge and information to supporters in regions handling alcohol-related problems,
provides cases and consultations for responses to residents with alcohol-related problems, and improves theskillsets of the supporting professionals.
２． Description of 2015 activities
To achieve the project objectives, the ASW Association dispatched several psychiatric social workers
to Ishinomaki City twice a month (every second Friday and fourth Wednesday) from April 2015 to March2016. These dispatched social workers provided the following support: ① cases and consultations, ②
consultation interviews for clients or families, ③ accompaniment from public nurses who conduct visits to
temporary housing, ④ attendance at conferences conducted in coordination with regional associates, ⑤ case study
investigations, ⑥ lecturers in lectures for residents and ⑦ lecture series or workshop planning/operation forregional support professions. The Ishinomaki City Health Promotion Division managed the coordination for
individual support and the collaboration system was such that the ASW Association provided the manpower. The
number of dispatched members in 2015 was 8 individuals and of these members, those who handled individual
support were five in total, and those who were dispatched for workshop planning or lecturing were three in total.
Projects ①, ②, ③, and ④ were ended in 2015.
３． Project progress and results
Support for projects ①, ②, ③, and ④, which were individual support projects that were ongoingfrom FY 2014, was shown below (Figures 1 and 2). The number of supported cases was 8 (13 times intotal), of which four cases were new. There was one visit case conducted, one family consultation
conducted, and seven consultation or case conference cases conducted, with a total of eight consultations
conducted.

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Figure 1 Breakdown of support cases in 2015 (new, ongoing) 2015

Response case number
breakdown (8 cases)
NewOngoing

Figure 2 Breakdown of support in 2015 by type988765433211100visit

Household Consultation

Consultation

Case conferenceworkshops and lectures

Table 1 ASW Association individual support contact people in 2015

Month of support

Dispatched members

Support content, number of cases

MayTeruyuki Sato （ Tohoku Branch ）2 consultation cases

JulyKiyoyuki Koseki （ Tohoku Branch ）No requests

September

Teruyuki Sato

2 consultation cases

NovemberKiyoyuki Koseki

2 consultation cases

January

Sakae Fujita

MarchSakae Fujita

1 consultation case, 1 visit, 1consultation interview case
1 consultation caseIn 2015, we continued individual support, as well as hosted the following workshops for regional supporters.
① Care worker training program
Content in workshops during FY 2015 was planned to be more advanced than that presented in workshops
ongoing since FY 2012. The theme was “establishing regional cooperation” and there was a demand for
coordination methods when establishing coordination efforts with regional associates as a training theme. At
the time, we were planning to have a total of three workshops with this theme but there were many participantsin the first meeting who had no prior training with regards to alcohol-related problems, so we quickly changed
the theme to “support for individuals with alcohol-related problems: assessment and support plans” and hosted
the meeting. The second and third meetings were based on the theme of “thinking about regional cooperation”.
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The second meeting taught about fundamental ways to think about cooperation and how to prepare for
conferences and the third meeting focused on teaching how to advance partnership conferences and practiced
with actual lectures and exercises. The current status is such that regional associates require even morecoordination following the earthquake but since there have been few opportunities to learn about cooperation,
there have been disagreements and insufficient understanding between associated organizations regarding thehosting of events. There were requests on learning how to cooperate while learning about alcohol-related
problems and they requested workshops that teach specific skills. The workshops that were planned and hosted
by the ASW Association upon receiving these requests are as shown below.
Table 2 FY 2015 Training program for caregivers
Lecture content

Lecturer

Hosting date

Number of participants

Support for individuals with alcohol-related
problems: assessment and support plans

Sumie Okada, Sakae Fujita

July 10th, 2015

52

Thinking about regional cooperation: the basics ofcooperation and its preparation

Sumie Okada, Naoto Okazaki

October 19th, 2015

37

Thinking about regional cooperation: how toadvance partnership conferences

Sumie Okada, Sakae Fujita,
Naoto Okazaki

December 16th, 201531

４． FY 2015 achievements and future challenges
Considering the achievements of support which has been ongoing since 2011, we had planned in 2015 totransition from basic content to applications with regards to training, but many of the actual participants had
not attended ASW Association workshops and although participants were struggling with alcohol-related
problems, we determined that many were at a stage before grasping these challenges and so we changed thecontent of the first workshop to a more basic one. The second and third workshops were entitled “thinkingabout regional cooperation” and its content was more focused on learning the basic understanding andknowledge of the theme of “cooperation”. Participants had mentioned that “it was useful because they could
apply it to problems other than those related to alcohol”. The reasoning for why “cooperation” was chosen as
the theme was because, during discussions with regional associates, they had mentioned that “after theearthquake, many support professions have had to handle the problems of each region and although they had
become more aware of the importance of cooperation, they were struggling in their workplaces because they
did not have the opportunity to learn how to put this into practice” and they had indicated this cooperation asa need to be obtained through training. This year was characterized by providing support for latent“connections” in the region through training and case study investigations.
Additionally, individual support activities, which ended with FY 2015, consisted of veteran staff members
affiliated with the Tohoku branch of the ASW Association providing support without any collaborations andproviding direct stakeholder and family consultations with public health nurses and regional associates. These
efforts contributed to the response capabilities of regional supporters and the support itself provided by thesestaff members was completed. By hosting these workshops in FY 2015, we once again realized how regional
needs have evolved with recovery progress. We also realized that supporters have silently struggled without
understanding or knowing the methods for supporting alcohol-related problems over these past five years. For
2016, we are planning more fundamental workshops that focus on handling alcohol-related problems so that
more supporters can apply this training in their work.

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