Report on Observation of Korean Ferry Disaster Support Facilities

Section IIIContributions－132－Child Mental Health Care

Miyagi Prefecture Mental Health and Welfare Center Engineering Councilor
Miyagi Prefecture Childcare Center
Dr. Shigemi Onodera

I am grateful for this opportunity to contribute my thoughts to this section of the MDMHCC Bulletin. I
would like to introduce the organization that I represent, the Miyagi Prefecture Childcare Center (MPCC).
The MPCC was established in 2001 as a separate entity from the Child Counseling Office, responsible foroverseeing child development support, human resource development, and child psychiatric treatment. It would
contain the Planning and Development Section (which implements training projects, etc.), the Daycare Section(which provides child daycare services, primarily to elementary schoolers), and the Clinical Section (whichprovides psychiatric therapy to children). The Clinical team established its headquarters in Sendai and began
to construct and utilize a system for disseminating therapy and treatment to Osaki, Ishinomaki, Kesennuma,
and eventually the entire prefecture. It continues to maintain this system to this day. On top of collaborations
with the Child Counseling Office, it became gradually more well known among nursery schools and schools,
and referrals from nursery teachers and school faculty began to increase.
As this was happening, the Great East Japan Earthquake struck. In the first year after this disaster, we formed
multidisciplinary care teams of 3-4 professionals, carved up the coastal areas of Miyagi into four districts, andproviding traveling counseling to individuals throughout each of these four regions. In the second year andbeyond, we reduced the responsibilities of our care teams and began to deploy childcare counseling teams
comprising psychologists and public health nurses. In February 2012, the Miyagi Prefecture Office of the Central Child Support Center of the Great East Japan Earthquake was established inside the MPCC, and it began
to assist in our child's mental health care work. In particular, it began to implement parachute games in nurseryschools and kindergartens, and I remember how much it empowered our children. In the third year and beyond,
we began to visit seven elementary schools throughout the prefecture once monthly, working to identify children with possible mental health issues and assist the school in its support initiatives.
In 2014 and beyond, a Mental Health Promotion Section was established inside the MPCC, and it began towork on putting together a Child Mental Health Care Team Project (in which psychologists and child psychiatrists would regularly visit municipalities, nursery schools, kindergartens, and schools to provide consultation),
the Child Mental Health Care Promotion Project (hosting training workshops for nursery school teachers andother school faculty), and the Child Mental Health Care Manual Creation Project (creation and distribution ofa Miyagi Child Support Map for future child mental health support efforts). It ran for three years, until 2016,
and then passed its work on to the Miyagi Disaster Mental Health Care Center.
From FY 2017 onward, the Center began to manage child mental health care, and I believe this effort targeting individuals of all ages, from children to adults, allowed for the provision of more comprehensive mental
health care. In particular, the Center has regional offices in both Ishinomaki and Kesennuma, enabling it toprovide more community-tailored support, something I believe is quite laudable.
On the other hand, since FY 2017, the MPCC has nearly returned to its usual activities, and we have beenworking together to improve the quality of our work. As I look back, I remember how, before the disaster, toprovide child psychotherapy throughout the prefecture, we established four locations with therapy functionalities. For some time after the disaster, acute stress response, PTSD, and other stress-related disorders were atan all-time high, and we worked ourselves to the bone to address them. Recently, rather than cases in which
the direct effects of the earthquake are plain as day, I get the feeling that those in which children indirectly fall
into horrible situations due to the disaster-related exhaustion and deterioration of everyone around them. The
disaster may play a big role in the rise of truancy and bullying that we’ve observed. We have strived since
before the disaster even happened to continue to provide consistent therapy in that arena, and we resolve tocontinue to remain a stalwart fixture in that space, one that people can rely on in need. I have, for the－140－Report on Observation of Korean Ferry Disaster Support Facilities

past 12 years, visited Kesennuma once a month on dispatch work.
Now, in the inaugural year of the Reiwa era, a new duty has been consigned to the MPCC: the establishment
and management of a Developmental Disability Support Center. Part of this duty comes at the behest of nationalpolicies, to be sure, but the people’s need for such an initiative is also high. A prefectural-managed Developmental Disability Support Center, mainly responsible for tertiary developmental disability support, will openin July 2019. As we speak, preparations for this opening are underway at a fearsome pace.
In the chaos that followed the disaster, there were no doubt many cases of children with developmental disabilities that surfaced as a result of maladjustment. Developmentally disabled children are greatly affected bytheir daily life and school environments, and the preparation of a support system is being accelerated as best it
can. In April 2019, under the auspices of the new chairman, the Developmental Disabilities team was newly
formed, and the MPCC’s work moved forward following this new system. In the future, we of the MPCC hope
to continue to work with the Center to fulfill our duties. We look forward to your continued support.

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