Yasuo Miyake
Social Welfare Corporation Harakara no Ie Fukushi Kai
Community Living Support Center Platz Life Partner

I have been living a challenging life since I developed schizophrenia when I was in middle school, and I am now 66 years old. I have been admitted to a psychiatric hospital twice. While suffering from this mental illness, I have had ambiguous thoughts since I was young that I wanted like to contribute to society in some way using my own experience of illness.

Sixteen years ago, after being discharged from a psychiatric hospital where I spent one year and three months, I joined the Harakara no Ie Fukushi Kai. Ten years ago, while I was working part-time posting ads, I was invited to become a Life Partner (LP) by the staff at the organization. LP is the name given by Harakara no Ie Fukushi Kai to peer supporters, signifying an accompanist or a companion for life.

The fundamental policy of LP is that hospitals are places for treatment, not for living. In reality, however, it is surprising that some have been hospitalized not only for 8 to 9 years but for almost 50 years.

As LPs, we visit various psychiatric hospitals with the staff and interact with people who are hospitalized. We engage in activities like playing card games, building Jenga towers, playing catch, or volleyball. There are times when we cook together and share meals, which always taste delicious when enjoyed in the company of others.

We also participate in study sessions where we share our experiences, such as my own experience with medications. When I was 39 years old, I was admitted to Hospital A and took more than 30 pills a day there. As a result, the symptoms of having the words of my uncle running through my head subsided (I had a lot of problems with my uncle when I was young, and it led to serious trauma). However, after that, the threatening behavior that I had suffered from in my twenties returned and escalated, involving my family as well. I was admitted to Hospital B, where the doctor significantly reduced and simplified my medication to just about 10 pills a day. Surprisingly, my symptoms improved. Through my firsthand experiences, I learned about the trend in mental healthcare shifting from multiple medications in high doses to single medications in lower doses. These were things I wouldn’t have understood if not for my own experiences.

I also talked about my experiences with using caregivers. Caregivers are incredibly valuable, especially for someone like me who lacks cooking skills. They taught me how to cook and enabled me to prepare meals for my mother, who had dementia.

I also talked about visiting nurses. The primary reason I wanted a visiting nurse was due to my sleep disorder. There were times when I could only sleep for about two hours a day. As I talked to the visiting nurse, I gradually realized that drinking whiskey mixed with juice to help me sleep was counterproductive. Once I stopped drinking alcohol before bed, I was able to sleep normally.

On another occasion, we were asked about things we do for our mental health besides medication. While others mentioned going for walks as a way to unwind, I said, “Not making friends.” (We have to be careful with who we make friends with). The person sitting next to me said, “It’s important to trust people.” I didn’t voice my thoughts, but internally, I felt that I wasn’t advocating against trusting people. Rather, we cannot live without trusting others. What I really wanted to say was that we are compatible as people with or without disabilities, but that we need to be careful if we both have mental illnesses.

I believe that LPs provide support for things that the staff at the organization cannot do. Staff members are not patients, have not experienced psychiatric hospitalization, and have not taken medication. The uniqueness of LP lies in our experiential expertise.

The COVID-19 pandemic that began in early 2020 has been a severe blow. To prevent infection, it became impossible to visit hospitals and meet patients. Now, all we can do is hope for the day when we can resume our hospital visits as soon as possible.

Edited and published by the Japanese Society for Rehabilitation of Persons with Disabilities.

Published on April 25th, 2023.