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Background: With advances in medical technology, the number of children with medical complexity (CMC) has increased. Excursions with such children encourage their social participation and have been shown to have a positive impact on their caregivers. However, the first‐hand experience of the excursions has not yet been evaluated regarding the difficulties faced by CMC and their caregivers during preparation, transportation, and in the local area. Methods: Semi‐structured interviews were conducted with eight informal and eight formal caregivers of CMC who attended an excursion to Tokyo Disney Land (TDL) via video conference. We investigated challenges that they had experienced through the excursion, performing inductive thematic analysis. Results: Three themes were identified: the preparation stage (Theme 1), problems encountered while traveling to the theme park (Theme 2), and problems at the theme park (Theme 3). In the preparation stage, three subthemes, i.e. preparation for the trip, cooperation with related parties, and researching about the theme park and asking for help, are reported. Theme 2 includes four subthemes: activities of daily living, respiratory care, luggage, and weather changes. Theme 3 has three subthemes: activities of daily living, physical condition management, and issues for the theme parks. Conclusions: We found that securing the power supply, location, and time for daily procedures are challenges in realizing excursions for CMC, but with sufficient preparation, it is possible in Japan without major difficulty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose Though several work-related mental health training initiatives have been implemented in Japan, the effectiveness of such approaches remains unclear. Consequently, some Japanese corporations prefer using interventions such as neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) to improve employee mental health and wellbeing. This language-based development methodology has been the subject of debate in terms of the quality of the underlying empirical evidence. However, a perspective missing from this debate is an evidence-based understanding of the first-hand experiences of employees that have undertaken NLP training. The purpose of this paper is to inform this debate by conducting a rigorous qualitative examination of the experiences of Japanese senior managers who had recently received training in NLP.Design/methodology/approach Semi-structured interviews attended by 11 Japanese NLP master practitioners were analysed using thematic analysis.Findings Four themes emerged from the data set: improving work-related mental health, NLP fosters a better understanding of the mind, NLP helps to reframe perspectives relating to work and mental health, and challenges of NLP training.Originality/value While managers found NLP training skills such as reframing and neuro-logical levels useful to their managerial practice and mental health more generally, they raised concerns about NLP's reputation as well as the utility of some of the techniques employed in NLP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]