Ground Self-Defense Force members search for survivors in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, in March 2011. (Provided by GSDF s 14th Brigade)
Extensive periods working in the aftermath of major natural disasters heightens the risk of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), according to a long-term study of Self-Defense Forces members.
The finding has ramifications for those working for other companies and organizations and who spend inordinate amounts of time helping disaster victims.
“Japan is expected to suffer from major natural disasters in the future and other occupations have been called on to provide disaster relief assistance,” said Masanori Nagamine, an industrial public health and psychiatry professor at the National Defense Medical College, who led the study.
The coronavirus pandemic could have been contained if the authorities in Wuhan had notified the World Health Organization earlier and allowed an expert team to investigate in December 2019, according to Dr Chen Chien-jen, Taiwan’s former vice-president and health minister who made his name during the SARS [Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome] outbreak nearly 20 years ago.
“Transparency and openness is very important for the containment of infectious diseases,” Dr Chen told Al Jazeera in an interview. “If the situation in Wuhan was very well reported to the World Health Organisation and the WHO organised a team and went to Wuhan in mid-December 2019, I think the disease could have been contained and no other countries would have suffered.”
While growing up in a dysfunctional family, Satomi Takahashi used to regularly endure watching her father beat her mother.
At the time, teachers and neighbors offered the young girl the help she needed to cope with her difficult home environment.
Today, Takahashi, a former psychiatric nurse, is returning the favor by offering lectures around the nation on preventing child suicides.
In Japan, the number of suicides used to exceed 30,000 a year but has decreased to less than that figure annually. However, the suicide rate for minors has doubled in the past 30 years.
Many of these young people decided to kill themselves due to minor setbacks in their daily lives, such as reprimands from parents and issues related to schoolwork and plans after graduation.