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OSAKA (Kyodo) – A group of people with mental health problems in Osaka Prefecture stands out by contributing to the community in a children's cafeteria and by conducting other activities that make sense of their life.
The group "Aoitori" ("Bluebird") organizes a free meal service called "Kishiwada Kodomo Shokudo" every four Saturdays of the month to help children and others in need, helping hospital patients for long periods of time in psychiatric services, and making appearances on the radio to address various concerns.
Tadao Ono, the group leader who had himself been hospitalized for a mental disorder, is helping many of his peers to be released from psychiatric hospitals to involve them in community activities.
"I wanted to show that people with mental disorders can also contribute to society," he said, explaining why the group was engaging in the program in the first place and continuing to fight against prejudice and prejudice. social stigma.
The term "Kodomo Shokudo", which refers to children's cafeterias, which provides free or reasonable meals to children from low-income and other families, started around 2012 in Tokyo and has spread to more than 2,000 locations across the country. Japan, thanks to local volunteers. At present, it also serves as a community gathering place in many places.
At the end of January, at the Kishiwada Children's Cafeteria located in the prefecture of western Japan, a hundred people, children, the elderly and the disabled, came for lunch and listened to music. performed by professional and amateur musicians.
Some elderly men and women took turns taking care of a little girl whose mother is mentally disturbed, holding her in his arms and playing with her during the event.
A kitchen in the social building of the city is used for events. There is a lively atmosphere as many mentally ill volunteers prepare food while chatting and joking.
A 7-year-old boy from Sakai, prefecture, accompanied by his mother, said that he frequented the cafeteria because he loves food and likes the people who gather there. He lent a hand to wash the dishes.
The Kishiwada cafeteria started about two years ago with about 40 participants, but a hundred people now come for dinner, according to the group.
"We may need more space in the future," said Ono, stressing the need for local governments to get involved and support the group's activities.
Without subsidies, the group manages the program through the intermediary of food banks and the support network of children's cafeterias, sometimes paying out of pocket for food.
Ono, along with some lawyers, helped de-institutionalize patients – a process in which long-term psychiatric hospitals are being replaced by less isolated community mental health services for people with mental disorders.
For Yoshinori Yamada, a doctor who treats people with mental disorders in his clinic in Akashi, Hyogo Prefecture, it is essential to determine if a system serves its purpose if it allows people with such disorders to socialize.
Yamada believes that involuntary or long-term hospitalization weakens patients and says the group's activities are good for themselves and for other members of the community.
He pointed out that Aoitori members would probably have been empowered by interacting with visitors to the cafeteria, especially children, while empowering those in need.
"The effects are mutual and I think it's essential," Yamada said.
According to Yamada, most people with mental disorders are overwhelmed by trauma inflicted by others.
"People hurt people, but they also rely on people forcibly, thanks to positive relationships," Yamada said, highlighting the importance of peer helpers being aware of traumas that can build relationships. positive with them on an equal footing taking care of others. trauma and their own.
Trauma Informants have a basic understanding of how trauma can affect families, groups, organizations, communities and individuals, according to the Addiction and Mental Health Services Administration from the US Department of Health and Human Services.
Yamada also insisted that Japan needed a system similar to the one set up in the United States by qualified staff respite teams, where people with mental disorders can take refuge in times of stress or aggravated symptoms, instead of hospitalization.
"I have seen patients heal better if they could leave home and rest for a while, but the only option currently available in Japan is hospitalization," he said.
"I think that one of the reasons for maintaining the current system of psychiatric hospitals is that they have nowhere to go, so it is important to prepare another place to stay (change the current system with a strong reliance on hospitalization), "he said.
Japan is significantly behind the trend towards deinstitutionalization, with the highest number of psychiatric beds among Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development countries (269 per 100,000 population), compared with an average of 68 in OECD countries.
The number of psychiatric beds fell by 290 per 100,000 population in 1993, which may be perceived as a testimony of a recent commitment to change, but Japan is still far off in others. country, according to the 2013 OECD Health Statistics.
And of more than 280,000 psychiatric patients hospitalized nationwide in June 2017, more than 60% of them were hospitalized for a year or more, according to data compiled by the National Institute of Mental Health. .
The group and Caoru Saito, badociate professor of philosophy and psychiatric social work at St. Andrew's University, in the prefecture, have also set up a regular training program. community radio station run by the non-profit organization Radio Kishiwada.
Saito is also a social worker in psychiatry, but she supports and involves in the activities of the group as a friend rather than as a professional.
"Working with people at the studio and chatting during the broadcast gives people with mental disorders a sense of self-confidence," Saito said. "They shine in the cabin," she says.
Kishiwada Radio usually helps modern recluses (called in Japanese "hikikomori"), who sometimes lock themselves up for years in their home, reconnect with society by working on the radio.
"It is necessary to understand first that they have difficulties or troubles, and then both parties have to find a way to reduce or eliminate the obstacles to do their job," said the head of the radio, Shotaro Kajino, adding that "the benefits are mutual". understand how to neutralize obstacles.
Saito said that people with mental disorders often still face prejudices and difficulties when they try to end the stigma in society.
An occasion, a pbaderby made a disgusted flyer during Aoitori's routine activity in the cafeteria, according to Saito.
"It's the reality that we face every day and it hurts," she said, as they were determined to establish themselves in the community despite the fact that they were in trouble. adversity and to involve anyway with the people who find them there. "We have no other choice," she said.
"We are discussing how we can change the minds of these people and let them join us at the table one day," said Saito.
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