Waa, Sugoi! Takako & Me.

The NAAP conference was three days of whirlwind fun and learning, but it didn't end there for me! I had been asked by NAAP to help organize a tour of senior living communities for Takako Serizawa, President of the Diversional Therapy Association of Japan, while she was here in the US. It was an overwhelming blessing to get to spend the day learning more about activities in Japan, hearing her story, and getting to show her around CC Young Senior Living and getting a tour of Presbyterian Village North. A big thanks to the PVN and CCY teams for helping with this. She toured The Ventana by Buckner and Juliette Fowler Communities the day after, so thank you to those teams as well!

At Presbyterian Village North with Takako

Takako taught me one word of Japanese, “Waa, Sugoi!” which means WOW! Amazing!!” Everything was sugoi! What I found sugoi was Takako’s story. She started her career in journalism doing Nellie Bly-esque stories where she would live in a mental health hospital for 24 hours and do other similar eye opening stories. For one of those, she lived in a nursing home with people with dementia for 24 hours. She was shocked at how little joy there was in the communities. They got great ADL care, but had no reason to smile. As Activity Professionals know, quality of care does not equal quality of life.

A little later, her son got a job in Australia and she went to visit for a while. She spent some time in nursing homes in Australia as a volunteer and realized the potential for what could be. Australia requires Diversional Therapists in their communities who are essentially activity directors. Takako loved the ideas, adaptations, interventions, and sense of joy she found in Australia. With her passion for seniors (she told me "I love people with Dementia and people with Dementia love me!"), she knew this is a way she could help.

She became a Diversional Therapist and since 2002, she has been leading the movement and serving as president of the Japanese association. She was able to convince the Japanese government to reimburse companies for hiring Diversional Therapists on staff, changing the regulation so that the administration sees the benefit of activities.

Using Google Translate to help Takako and me connect

Diversional Therapy is the name for Activities in Australia, New Zealand, and Japan. In the US, the term "diversion" has a negative connotation. It's almost a false reassurance - don't think about that and pretend it doesn't exist and we hope you don't remember. We're diverting people from what they want to do, think, or feel (which is so anti-validation). So I asked Takako what does "diversion" mean to these organizations? She explained it like this - when life throws up a block (like a cognitive decline, a physical impairment, or an emotional trigger), you don't stop. You find a way around it. You don't divert and find a new path, you divert around the block and get back on your path of life and keep going!

Life throws all of us those blocks. But that doesn't mean we should stop in our path. We divert the block and keep going. We find a way around it (adaptation). If you're stuck with a block in your path and need help diverting it, reach out to me, Natalie, or ActivTimes and we can set up a private consultation to help you problem solve, find resources, and keep moving forward!