Objectives and activities

   In today's stressful world, mental illness is positioned as one of the five major illnesses mentioned in the healthcare plan in 2013, and it is known that more than half of patients develop this type of illness by their early 20s (Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare). We conduct educational programs for handling relationships with schizophrenia patients, depressive patients and other patients with psychiatric conditions to have students develop the ability to protect them from the disease, sense their own or others’ mental disorders and ask for help or consult other people or counseling organizations by obtaining knowledge about mental disorders and illnesses, and aim to help achieve a prejudice- and discrimination-free cohesive society. In conducting the programs, we value the collaboration with Ms. TABUCHI Yasuko (Psychiatric Social Worker/representative of LIFE), Dr. YOSHIMURA Yusaku (Jikei-kai Jikei Hospital), Dr. SATO Mitsumoto (former President of the Japanese Society of Psychiatry & Neurology, professor emeritus of Tohoku University) and patient organizations. A description of the activities is as follows:

• Teacher training “What is mental health literacy education?”
• Review meetings on instruction plans
• Meetings among executive committee members and members concerned
• Academic year classes by expert lecturers
• Classes by the teachers in charge of each class
• Networking events for patients organized by the executive committee
• Educational activities by the healthcare committee

Expected effects

• Cultivation of awareness of human rights so as to not allow prejudice or discrimination
• Improvement of the mental health literacy of students and teachers