Japan PTSD

Empathy in a Disaster Zone

August 25, 2011

Joseph Halm
newwave@tulane.edu

Takashi Fujioka, a visiting scholar from Japan who specializes in social work burnout prevention, has designed a new method for monitoring mental health professionals working in a disaster zone. Fujioka spent several months in New Orleans working with the Tulane Traumatology Institute at the Tulane School of Social Work to help mental health professionals in Japan after the recent earthquake and tsunami.

Takashi Fujioka

Takashi Fujioka, a social work visiting professor, develops a disaster-services monitoring method for mental health providers. (Photo by Joseph Halm)

A professor of social work at the Japan College of Social Work, Fujioka survived the March 11 earthquake disaster. “It was like a slow-moving horror show,” he says.

“Trauma is not only a primary experience for those who suffer through it,” he says. “It also affects those who help the trauma victims. It is something that everyone experiences.”

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