Work and Proposals by the Japan Developmental Disorders Network

Japan Developmental Disorders Network

The Great East Japan Earthquake, which hit on March 11, 2011, not only affected many people but also caused the death of numerous others. I would like to once again express my deepest condolences and sympathy to the many people affected by the disaster.

The Great East Japan Earthquake was an unprecedented disaster, and it was difficult to determine the extent of the damage immediately after the earthquake. In particular, there was almost no information on people with disabilities affected by the disaster, and it was difficult to ascertain the condition of persons with developmental disabilities, their families, and supporters.

Under these conditions, the Japan Developmental Disorders Network (JDDnet) first established the JDDnet Disaster Support Fund and started raising funds. The JDDnet Disaster Support Fund was for donations to be used to cover the costs of purchasing and delivering relief supplies to Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima and conducting support activities, and the funds were effectively used.

At the same time, a team of specialists was created and dispatched to Fukushima, Iwate, and Miyagi in April.

The following gives the team members and length of time they spent in the disaster area (the affiliation of specialists are as of the time listed).

<Team No. 1>

In Miyagi: April 6-9, 2011
In Fukushima: April 10-13, 2011

Representative:
Masatsugu Tsujii (Chukyo University)
Hidekatsu Kiya (Yamaguchi University), Mayumi Horie (Shiraume Gakuen University), Taku Hagiwara (Hokkaido University of Education, Asahikawa Campus), Masayoshi Ogura (Naruto University of Education), Naoto Mochizuki (Hamamatsu University School of Medicine, only Miyagi), Shunji Nakajima (Hamamatsu University School of Medicine, only Miyagi)

<Team No. 2>

In Iwate: May 7-10, 2011
In Fukushima: May 10-13, 2011

Representative:
Jun Adachi (Hokkaido University of Education, Asahikawa Campus)

Representative:
Masahiko Inoue (Tottori University)
Asami Maekawa (Tokyo Woman's Christian University), Kenichi Okubo (Hokkaido University of Education, Asahikawa Campus), Shoji Okamura (Hyogo University of Teacher Education), Nobuya Takayanagi (Hamamatsu University School of Medicine, only Iwate), Mitsunori Myogan (Tokai Gakuen University, only Miyagi), Satomi Suzuki (Developmental Disorders Information Center)

During the initial stage, along with persons with developmental disabilities, their families and supporters, and local government officials, the teams of specialists provided support necessary for the conditions in each of the three prefectures affected by the disaster. The support activities provided in Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima are given below.

[Iwate]

Using the JDDnet Disaster Support Fund, JDDnet provided various types of supplies including not only equipment such as personal computers so that the offices of parents' associations that had been washed away could start functioning again but also necessary items for families affected by the disaster who have children with developmental disabilities.

In addition, having been commissioned by Iwate Prefecture to operate the Support Project for Children with Developmental Disorders in Areas Affected by the Disaster, JDDnet undertook various support activities.

The first round of activities consisted of holding informal meetings over tea and conducting training workshops in Morioka-shi, Ofunato-shi, and Oshu-shi October 14-19, 2011, which were mainly held by members of the second team of specialists. The informal meetings over tea were attended by various parties including guardians, supporters, and government officials, and participants discussed what occurred during the earthquake and exchanged opinions on future support for persons with developmental disabilities. At the training workshop, two lectures were held, “Understanding Children After the Earthquake - Various Signs of SOS” and “Supporting Children After a Disaster - Actual Support.”

There were also three education-related lectures “Understanding Developmental Disabilities,” “Developmental Disabilities and Support (1) - Development from a Clinical Perspective,” and “Developmental Disabilities and Support (2) - Environment-related Schemes and Consideration, Including Connections with the Surroundings.”

The second round of activities was held over five days, January 26-30, 2012; while traveling south from Kuji-shi on the northern coast, various activities were conducted including exchanging opinions with guardians and supporters in municipalities along the coast regarding developing a support system for persons with developmental disabilities, providing concrete advice, and holding workshops. In particular, there were lectures on developmental disabilities, practical courses on raising children, and group workshops on creating local networks.

The second round of activities not only stressed support for persons with developmental disabilities but also included workshops and informal meetings over tea on development support based on child rearing support and the outlook for support for persons with developmental disabilities. These activities, which took into consideration the special characteristics of the coastal areas hit by the disaster, were extremely well received by the local people.

[Miyagi]

In order to support the operation of the Ishinomaki-shi Kamome Gakuen (day service center for children with disabilities), JDDnet organized the dispatch of student volunteers (groups of 1-2 students took turns working for one weeks) starting from April 13, 2011.

As one form of support for the Ishinomaki area, JDDnet held three events on creating play areas, which was based on the theme “play square.” The events were for children with developmental disabilities who had difficulty playing because of the damage from tsunamis and their families. For the “play square,” JDDnet dispatched a specialist as a coordinator and held a series of counseling meetings with various groups including parents' associations in Sendai-shi for several purposes such as exchanging opinions following the disaster.

As for efforts to educate people about developmental disabilities, JDDnet worked with Kamome Gakuen to hold educational lectures and conduct training for supporters on various topics, including daycare, health maintenance, and education in order to increase understanding of developmental disabilities and post-disaster care needs in Ishinomaki.

In Miyagi, JDDnet also provided support to persons with developmental disabilities as late as March 2013 through a Miyagi Developmental Disorders Reconstruction Support Project. For this project, JDDnet dispatched specialists as requested by the prefecture and provided rear support for developmental disability reconstruction in the prefecture. One part of this was conducting parent training in the Ishinomaki area. Through parent training, JDDnet proposed a concrete direction that focused on behavior as a way to view children and provided training in the form of group work with mothers. The plan is to introduce parent training in areas other than Ishinomaki.

[Fukushima]

During the middle of April, when the first specialist team reached the area, the nuclear accident was still having a major impact, and conditions were very fluid on the front line. The first team held meetings with the responsible parties in the local area, including local government officials, education related parties, counseling related parties, and parents' association, collected information in order to ascertain the current conditions and future needs, and shared support issues.

After that, it was expected that there would be greater need for after-school support groups because the child day-service center in Soma-shi was closed due to radiation from the nuclear accident. Under these conditions, having been commissioned by Fukushima Prefecture to undertake a Counseling/Support Project for Children with Disorders Affected by the Disaster project starting in July 2011, JDDnet temporarily opened a project office in Soma-shi and dispatched two locally hired childcare workers. In order to provide counseling support, including examinations from the local area, the Japanese Society of Certified Clinical Psychologists, Japanese Organization of Clinical Developmental Psychologist, the Japanese Association of Speech-Language-Hearing Therapists, Japanese Association of Occupational Therapists, and S.E.N.S Inc., JDDnet member organizations, dispatched two specialists every week through a rotation system and continued to provide support in the disaster area. In addition, specialists dispatched by JDDnet were able to conduct the various tests requested by local communities and meet their needs, including providing support for children in neighboring schools for special needs education while dispatched team members from the various professional organizations were able to make use of their specialization and provide support.

Through the support provided to Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima, I came to feel that the earthquake had substantially different impacts on each prefecture and that there were different needs for support for persons with developmental disabilities. Furthermore, many of the areas that sustained damage from the Great East Japan Earthquake do not have sufficient support systems for persons with developmental disabilities. JDDnet is a federation of organizations for persons with developmental disabilities, work-training organizations, academic organizations, and experts related to developmental disability. The following are common proposals developed while moving forward with support activities in the three prefectures that made use of specialization of the network and met the particular conditions and needs of each prefecture.

1. Secure emergency shelters for persons with developmental disabilities and their families and reexamine the best way for establishing secondary emergency shelters.
2. Designate fukushi (welfare) emergency shelters (emergency shelters for vulnerable citizens) in advance and flexibly establish them, such as having one for each type of special needs.
3. Implement responses that take into consideration the unique aspects of how persons with developmental disabilities act when staying at temporary housing.
4. Provide support to families who have children with developmental disabilities and are living as evacuees in emergency shelters, at home, etc.
5. Promptly relaunch support for daily life, including day services for children, respite care, and short-stay services.
6. Rebuild emergency information networks.
7. Provide support for developing a parent network in each local area.
8. Ensure that children with developmental disabilities have a way to get to school.
9. Examine providing temporary financial support to families of persons with disabilities during emergencies.
10. Increase the number of counseling support specialists in local areas.
11. Provide financial support for offices in the disaster area.
12. Provide emergency support to families with children with developmental disabilities during extended holidays, such as summer vacations.

It has been one and a half years since the Great East Japan Earthquake, and in terms of supporting people with developmental disabilities in the area rebuilding, JDDnet would like to help develop a local support network by considering issues and working with local residents.