11 days marks 13 years since the Great East Japan Earthquake.

At the time, many people were forced to evacuate from home, but a university research group found that medical assistance was about a week slower to arrive than at evacuation centers.

Many people are evacuated to their homes in the areas affected by the Noto Peninsula earthquake, and experts point out that support systems need to be strengthened.

A research group led by Professor Shinichi Egawa of the International Institute of Disaster Science at Tohoku University, who specializes in disaster medicine, analyzed the medical records of more than 8,000 disaster victims left in Minamisanriku Town, Miyagi Prefecture.



The results showed


that people in evacuation centers first received medical assistance on average 12.9 days after the earthquake, while


those evacuated to their homes received medical assistance 19.3 days later, 6.4 days later. I did.



When we interviewed doctors, public health nurses, and others in Minamisanriku Town about the causes, we found that


▽Evacuation sites were scattered, and there was a delay in identifying people who needed medical care.


▽Information about medical support from outside was not available. This means that it may have been difficult to reach evacuees at home compared to evacuation centers.



Professor Egawa said that many of the evacuees at home had chronic diseases such as diabetes and high blood pressure, which in the worst case scenario could have led to disaster-related death from stroke or heart disease.



Many evacuees were seen at home after the Noto Peninsula earthquake, and Professor Egawa said, ``Statistics show that nearly half of disaster-related deaths occur at home, so people who know the area well, such as public health nurses and welfare commissioners, It is important to investigate the health risks and necessary medical care faced by evacuees at home, with the help of medical professionals, and to ensure that they are not overlooked."

“Some people have been more severely affected,” and some have refrained from seeking medical treatment due to reluctance.

Some evacuees in Minamisanriku Town, Miyagi Prefecture died because they were unable to receive the medical care they needed.



In Minamisanriku Town, multiple evacuation centers designated by the town at the time were damaged, and medical institutions within the town stopped functioning.



In the inland Iriya district, water and power outages continued throughout the area, but many people survived the tsunami and were living in their homes as evacuees, with some having their homes washed away on the coast. , people relying on relatives living in the area were also evacuated.



Masamitsu Yamauchi (72 years old at the time), a resident of this area, was suffering from lung cancer at the time and was scheduled to receive anti-cancer treatment in March.



However, because the hospital he was attending was damaged by the earthquake, he passed away more than two months after the earthquake, with no prospect of treatment.



Although Mr. Yamauchi was not feeling well, he was focusing on providing support, such as by sharing the well water he drew from his home with people in the area and by opening up the baths he heated with firewood.



Her wife, Kiyoko, said, ``Her husband was unable to go to the hospital or get a doctor to come, and she worked hard for the community and died suffering until the very end. I wanted you to reach out to me," he said.

According to Akiko Takahashi, a local public health nurse who assisted evacuees, she had no idea who was evacuating where immediately afterward, as she herself had been affected by the disaster.



For this reason, a team of public health nurses from all over the country came to support the patients, and they worked together to visit the area and assess the health status of the patients.



As a result, while some people were able to access medical care, others hesitated or put up with it, saying things like, ``There are people who have suffered much worse,'' or ``I still have medication left.'' It is said that there was also a refrain.



Takahashi says, ``In some cases, evacuees at home tended to be the ones providing support or refrained from providing support, making it difficult to monitor their own health status.During a disaster, people tend to focus on evacuation centers, We must pay close attention to the health management of evacuees staying at home."

Utilizing experience from the Great East Japan Earthquake to provide support in areas affected by the Noto Peninsula Earthquake

Drawing on the experience of the Great East Japan Earthquake, initiatives have begun to support evacuees at home in areas affected by the Noto Peninsula Earthquake.



According to Ishikawa Prefecture, as of March 4, at least 4,706 people were living as evacuees in their homes in the disaster-stricken areas, and it is believed that there are many evacuees who are unknown to local governments.



In order to support these people, a base is being built in Anamizu Town, Ishikawa Prefecture.



It was founded by Tomoyuki Abe, who worked as a lifestyle consultant at the Reconstruction Support Center during the Great East Japan Earthquake, and currently works as the executive director of a food bank in Morioka City, providing food support to families in poverty. Masu.



Mr. Abe has decided to understand the actual situation of people who are evacuated to their homes through food assistance, and on this day he will be sorting through food, water, cassette cylinders, and other supplies that have arrived from all over the country, and will be working in Suzu City. I also distributed them to support groups that are active.



According to Mr. Abe,

many people faced various hardships in the Great East Japan Earthquake,


such as losing their income because their workplaces were damaged even if their homes were safe,


or being unable to apply for government support because they were tired of caring for their family members.


I mean, I faced it.



For this reason, through this activity, Mr. Abe hopes to collaborate with local social welfare councils, bar associations, and other organizations to provide long-term support that is tailored to each individual.



Abe said, ``During the Great East Japan Earthquake, some people said, ``If I was going to feel like this, I wish I had died at that time.'' I want to continue providing support that values ​​the dignity of each person, regardless of whether or not their home was damaged. ” he said.

Expert: “There is a problem with the system, we need to change our way of thinking immediately”

Regarding the difficulty in receiving support for evacuees at home, Taku Kanno, an associate professor at Osaka Public University who is an expert on disaster victim support, says that the Disaster Relief Act is based on evacuation centers and does not take into account people who are home at home. It points out that there is a problem with this.



For this reason, we will shift our thinking from providing support to "places" such as evacuation centers to providing support to "people" such as disaster victims, and the support side will need to understand the health status and daily life worries of each person, including evacuees at home. It says there is a need to advance "disaster case management."



In addition,


we will revise the Disaster Relief Act to include support from a welfare perspective and create a system that can move quickly immediately after a disaster, and


utilize the power of the private sector, rather than leaving everything to the staff of affected local governments. It is necessary to build a system that



Associate Professor Kanno said, ``Due to the Noto Peninsula Earthquake, there were many areas where it was difficult for aid to reach due to road closures, etc., but the issues that became apparent are also the issues that were known from the Great East Japan Earthquake.The framework for supporting disaster victims. It has remained old for a long time, so we have to change it immediately to suit today's society.''