Hanako Kitano: Supporting Children Under Long-term Medical Care Through the Power of Sports

The TEAMMATES project is a matching project where children requiring long-term treatment join a sports team as a member and regularly participate in practices and games. It supports the independence of children who have experienced long-term hospitalization and require ongoing care by helping them find a place where they belong within the team, find role models to look up to, and regain their self-confidence.

While living a life of medical treatment and physical restrictions that continue after discharge, we support them in expanding the scope of their school life, daily life, and future social life by accumulating experiences of finding what they can do while receiving understanding and cooperation from those around them.

That's right. By having not only the sports team members but also the many people who support the team get to know the child, we create a situation where there are people in their hometown who will support them even after the activity ends, turning it into an activity that leads to ongoing support.

Yes. The B.League, a partner of The Nippon Foundation which supports us, decided to take on this project as part of their social responsibility activities, and it started as a professional sports project.

It is rare even overseas for a professional sports team to engage in a single social contribution activity over the long term. The next was a corporate American football club, followed by the Keio University Athletic Association Baseball Club. Currently, a total of three children are participating.

Correct. When I was studying abroad at a university in the U.S., a non-profit organization called "Team IMPACT" was running a project matching university sports with children under long-term medical care. That organization alone has matched nearly 1,500 children in total and operates in over 450 universities across 46 states.

I wanted to bring the activities of "Team IMPACT" to Japan as well.

I actually spent time in long-term medical care due to an illness when I was a child. I loved sports before I got sick, and I continued treatment with the goal of being able to run once I recovered, but I just didn't get better. Every time my doctor or family told me, "You'll be able to run once you're cured," I wondered when that would ever be.

Even if you recover as an adult, the experiences of sports and other things you wanted to do as a child don't come back. That's why I started this activity—I wanted to support children so that even if there are things they can't do because of illness, their "youth" doesn't suffer from a gap compared to others, and they can spend their childhood with various goals and hopes.

When I thought about supporting children with illnesses to engage with society while undergoing long-term treatment, I felt it wasn't a problem that could be solved just by studying medicine or nursing. I was looking for a place where I could learn from a more multifaceted perspective. Then, a teacher from the in-hospital classroom I attended during my school years told me about SFC.

When I went to the open campus, I heard someone say, "SFC creates the future a hundred years from now," and those words left an impression on me. Also, seeing students at research presentations vividly communicating social issues they cared about and working hard on them made me want to become that kind of university student.

The biggest thing was that there were many different students with various social issues, and even among peers studying health communication under Professor Akiyama, people would talk about a single theme from completely different perspectives and angles. Talking with those friends was great because I could learn ways of perceiving things I had never even thought of.

Now, when I'm involved with various people like the B.League, patient groups, and co-medical staff and "collaboration" becomes necessary, I think the experience of doing group work at SFC with peers who had diverse backgrounds and awareness of issues is proving useful.

Since SFC was not a department specialized in medical care, I wanted to try thinking about issues among people who were more specialized in medical fields. While many people, including doctors, had medical backgrounds, I continued my studies regarding my own issues.

I went to Springfield College in the U.S. aiming to obtain certification as a Child Life Specialist (CLS), a professional role that supports and reduces the anxiety and psychological stress of children with illnesses and their families when they undergo various medical experiences.

After obtaining the certification, I returned to Japan and worked as a CLS at the Saitama Children's Medical Center. In the hospital, I explained tests and illnesses to children with various conditions, including pediatric cancer, according to their age and development. I also collaborated with doctors, nurses, and other professionals to support the creation of environments and opportunities where children could take the initiative and do their best.

Also, during my study abroad, I gained experience as a CLS intern in the NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit), so I was involved in supporting low-birth-weight infants and babies requiring medical care, as well as their siblings, as a CLS in the NICU, which are still few in Japan.

Even now, I am involved as a CLS in terms of how to clearly communicate the anxieties and challenges of children joining teams to people in society.

In Japan, there are physical therapists and occupational therapists. While rehabilitation mainly supports functional recovery, recreation specialists support physical, mental, and social independence through recreational activities, ultimately aiming for the self-actualization of those individuals. In several U.S. states, it is a professional qualification that can receive medical fees, just like physical and occupational therapists.

Recreation is not limited to sports; it includes things you like, such as music or cooking. Due to disability or illness, the things one usually enjoys can become restricted. For example, if someone who played sports daily becomes completely unable to do so due to illness, we look for a different recreation equivalent to sports together.

The etymology of recreation is "re-create," so it means creating new value. While you may lose values you previously held due to becoming ill, you can conversely create new values. For example, even if someone who originally loved basketball ends up in a wheelchair due to a spinal cord injury, by starting "wheelchair basketball," they can regain the will to live in their individual life and daily routine, or create new value. This is recreation.

Furthermore, recreation specialists work together to think of methods suited to the individual through recreational activities—such as how to communicate their illness, disability, and necessary cooperation to those around them in daily life, or how to handle stress and situations when they hit a barrier of being unable to do something—supporting them in facing their illness or disability.

Recreation is an important activity for balancing daily life in order for people to gain connections with society, build physical strength, have a change of pace, have meaningful time for themselves, and achieve self-actualization. So, it's not specifically because of illness or disability; recreation is something everyone needs.

My best memory is an initiative I encountered when I went for an internship at BlazeSports America, an organization that is a legacy of the Atlanta Paralympics. It was very impressive to see sports not being used as a competition, but as a way to solve social issues.

For example, with the goal of promoting understanding and social participation for children with disabilities, opportunities are provided to play sports with local able-bodied children. Among them are people from various backgrounds, such as Black, White, or people with gender identity disorder. Everyone does sports together.

And when the friends who enjoyed sports together reflect on the activity, issues like disabilities, discrimination because they are Black, or the fact that they look like a man but feel like a woman are communicated positively, from big issues to each individual's small ones. This experience was very memorable.

By doing sports together, they gain the confidence to challenge new things, and because they did it together as a team, it becomes a breakthrough to break down the walls they previously had and communicate what they are thinking. I felt that was amazing most of all when I went to the U.S.

Regarding the children, I think the biggest thing is the increase in the presence of people in society who support and stand by them. Since families also have various worries, having more people in society who understand them, regardless of the medical or welfare fields, reduces anxiety more than anything and becomes a great support for their life under medical treatment.

Recently, a child who participated in the B.League came to the induction ceremony of the Keio baseball club because they wanted to connect with other friends through this activity. They interviewed the child who joined, and in various ways, I think they gained a lot of confidence, initiative, and positiveness.

Also, their treatment progress is very good, and it seems the speed of treatment is three months faster than the average child. We don't know the causal relationship yet, but I hope we can evaluate such things in the future.

For the team, by bringing in that child, they think about doing something for them and take action. I think the biggest thing is that each player and staff member develops initiative, compassion, and awareness of issues, which improves the team's unity and atmosphere.

This project doesn't work just because one person works hard; unless the whole team knows about it, is conscious of their teammate's presence, and moves together, the child won't feel like a member of the team.

For this Keio baseball club induction ceremony, there were initially voices saying that perhaps not everyone needed to participate. But when I told the members of the student project team that the induction ceremony is for the child joining and also for the team accepting them, and that I wanted them to think about what was best for the team, they decided they wanted to participate as a whole, and about 160 club members in total attended the induction ceremony.

At a time when sports are attracting public attention toward TOKYO 2020, I hope to continue creating and promoting positive role models in society who realize many possibilities while facing illness or disability, and to leave behind and pass on a community that supports those role models. To that end, I want to continuously increase support such as promoting understanding of individuals with illnesses or disabilities, opportunities and services for social participation, manpower, and donations.

There are about 250,000 children nationwide who require long-term medical care and need support. That is a small population overall, and attention and money are still insufficient. When I started the NPO, I thought I could raise awareness and attention toward that and lift the overall level. Support organizations everywhere are either volunteer-based or lacking funds. However, NPOs provide support in various forms for parts that national systems or hospitals inevitably cannot reach.

It is difficult for a single NPO organization to communicate and have the whole of society know about such things, but with TOKYO 2020, sports have the great communicative power that athletes and teams possess. By putting it on that and having people know about these activities and the need for support, I hope light will be shed on support for children.

Since the children of today will actually create the future, I want to create a society that shares the awareness that not only healthy children but also children with illnesses are among those who create that future.

There are still very few people in Japan who hold the certifications I have (CLS, CTRS). Since I believe I must educate and create people to expand the activities, my ultimate goal is to create the same professionals in the field. Also, by engaging in research to evaluate the project, I hope to visualize the challenges in the field and the significance of the activities.