The Tohoku University School of Medicine's Psychiatric Nursing Unit has partnered with READYFOR to launch a crowdfunding campaign. The campaign is calling for donations to help the department organise a tea ceremony event to assist the recovery of patients with mental illness.
The idea for the tea ceremony was born seven years ago. The Tohoku University School of Medicine Psychiatric Nursing Unit began organising a tea ceremony as part of its daily care operations. Over the years the event has blossomed, attracting research grants and utilising the involvement of psychiatric nursing students, local mental health staff, and volunteers. It has become an annual spring event for the past five years, and with the aid of kind donors.
The tea ceremonies provide a great opportunity for social engagement with psychiatric patients, helping to reduce the stigma and prejudices that surround mental illness.
Psychiatric rehabilitation involves vocational therapy, a process where the patient overcomes the barriers to accessing, maintaining, or returning to employment. Other forms can be recreational, such as through sports, or centred around communication skills training. Debates are ongoing as to which method is better suited for psychiatric patients.
A tea ceremony incorporates elements of various rehabilitation methods since it achieves a balance of challenge, recreation, and communication opportunities. Tea ceremonies help generate a sense of mindfulness in psychiatric patients that allows them to focus on the task at hand instead of a mind dominated by anxiety.
The ceremony has been designed under the careful guidance of psychiatric nurses. Kimono wearing, flower arranging, sweets tasting, and scroll making act as a way to stimulate the five senses, in turn relaxing the mind and helping psychiatric patients overcome their negative feeling.
This crowdfunding campaign has been launched with the help of READYFOR, a company that seeks to facilitate socially orientated projects by connecting individuals and organisations to funds. With the help of generous donations, the Psychiatric Nursing Unit hopes to continue organising the event, expanding the activities done within the ceremony, and increasing the number of participants. Details of the event will be announced at a later date once the situation pertaining to the coronavirus calms down.
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Tohoku University External Relations DivisionTel: +81-22-217-6290
Email: kikin
grp.tohoku.ac.jp