Oral 18

[O-18-05] A long-term mental health care system for the 2011 Fukushima disaster area: responding to remarkable changes of the affected area never seen in natural disasters

*Masaharu Maeda^1,2, Tomoyuki Kobayashi^2,3, Yui Takebayashi^2,4, Tomoo Hidaka⁵, Michio Murakami⁶ (1.Prefectural Mental Health and Welfare Centre(Japan), 2.Fukushima Center for Disaster Mental Health(Japan), 3.School of Sociology, Kwansei Gakuin University(Japan), 4.Department of Disaster Psychiatry, Fukushima Medical University, School of Medicine(Japan), 5.Department of Hygiene and Preventive Medicine, Fukushima Medical University, School of Medicine(Japan), 6.Center for Infectious Disease Education and Research, The University of Osaka(Japan))

Keywords:

Disaster Psychiatry,Nuclear disaster,community-based mental health support

The Great East Japan Earthquake, followed by the severe accident at the Fukushima-Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, caused substantial physical and emotional damage to a vast number of people, leading to long-lasting mental health effects. Over 160,000 people were evacuated to various locations across Japan and were forced to live as evacuees for unexpected, prolonged periods. There are nearly 25,000 people still evacuated inside and out of Fukushima Prefecture, while even over 14 years have passed since the accident. These long-term evacuations brought serious consequences for their health: more than 2,300 disaster-related deaths and approximately 130 disaster-related suicides. In addition, many unaffected people moved to the affected area near the power plant due to various support measures, including financial subsidies, whereas the original affected residents still hesitated to return to their hometowns. According to our study, which utilized national census data, the ratio of cumulative residents who have ever relocated to the total resident population was surprisingly more than 50% (Kobayashi et al., 2025). While the affected communities have undergone significant changes, as described above, a major facility, the Fukushima Center for Disaster Mental Health (FCDMH, “Fukushima Kokoro No Care Center”), has been actively providing various support programs in affected areas since 2012. The FCDMH was newly established based on national support, comprising about 40 mental health professionals. They have been conducting different types of activities, including outreach services for affected individuals, workshops for local care providers and stakeholders, and other population-based interventions. Focusing on the activities of the FCDMH, we will present recent mental health data for the affected people and discuss the current tasks of recovery from the Fukushima disaster. This work was partially supported by Research Project on the Health Effects of Radiation organized by Ministry of the Environment, Japan.