SY28-5 * TEACHING MOTIVATIONAL INTERVIEWING SKILLS TO MEDICAL CARE PROVIDERS IN THE TOHOKU AREA, WHERE PEOPLE SUFFERED FROM AN EARTHQUAKE AND A TSUNAMI IN 2011

Abstract

Listen

Translate article

An earthquake of 9.0 magnitude hit the north eastern area of Japan on March 11, 2011. Many residents in the area are still forced to live in temporary housing. Under stressful situation such as these natural disasters, various risks of mental illness tend to increase. Many kinds of community mental health care providers such as public health nurses, psychiatric social workers, and administrative health care consultants are active in disaster areas. Sometimes they face the residents' denial. Some people refuse to be concerned about their drinking issues or unhealthy habits. We are visiting the disaster areas of Ofunato City and Rikuzen-takata City monthly, and we are supervising the intervention of the mental health care providers. We are providing intervention skills that are based on motivational interviewing and problem solving. As a result of the health care providers applying such intervention skills, some residents have changed their distractive behaviors. In one case, one person who had alcohol abuse problems stopped drinking, although he had never changed his drinking behavior before. In another case, one person who had serious Somatoform Disorder participated regularly in counseling with an administrative health care consultant. Through these cases, one can see the application of motivational interviewing techniques for community health care.