Korea to provide mental health counseling to 1 million by 2027

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Korea to provide mental health counseling to 1 million by 2027

Published: 05 Dec. 2023, 19:18

SARAH KIM
[email protected]

President Yoon Suk Yeol, center, presides over a meeting on mental health policy attended by some 100 people including officials and experts at the Blue House in central Seoul on Tuesday. [JOINT PRESS CORPS]

As part of plans to overhaul its mental health policy, the Korean government announced Tuesday it will provide psychological counseling to 80,000 people, including those with suicidal thoughts, by next year.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare revealed its mental health innovation plan, revamping the government's current policy by detailing overarching preventive and recovery measures to tackle mental health issues.

This comes as Korea has ranked as the country with the highest rate of suicide among OECD nations for nearly 20 years.

Under the plan, a total of 1 million people are expected be able to receive psychological counseling funded with government support by 2027, including most immediately people in medium- and high-risk groups next year. These groups include those who have experienced suicide in their families, or those who have been deemed as needing intervention by medical institutions or welfare centers, as a part of efforts to introduce early treatment and prevention.

The government will also increase national mental health checkups for young people aged 20 to 34 years old, from once every 10 years to every 2 years, laying the foundation for early intervention for signs of mental health risks, including depression, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

The government said that through such policies, it aims to reduce the suicide rate by 50 percent within 10 years.

The suicide rate for Koreans stood at 25.2 per 100,000 people in 2022, far exceeding the average of 10.6 among 34 OECD member countries, holding the top spot since 2003.

According to the Health Ministry, the number of people who received treatment for mental illness increased from 2.89 million in 2015 to 4.11 million in 2021.

In particular, the number of patients in their 20s with depression doubled in four years, from 99,796 in 2018 to 194,322 last year.

The mental health policy vision was revealed in a public-private meeting at the Blue House state guesthouse in central Seoul, presided by President Yoon Suk Yeol and attended by some 100 people including related ministers, lawmakers and experts.

The plan took into consideration rising concerns over deteriorating mental health amid changes in the social environment, such as increased isolation due to the Covid-19 pandemic and economic difficulties.

The government aims to move away from its previous mental health policy that focused on treatment and care for patients with severe mental illness, which is criticized as being reactive, passive and lacking support for prevention, early treatment, recovery and a return to daily life.

"In contrast to our high economic level, the suicide rate is highest, the happiness index is last and life satisfaction is extremely low," Yoon said. "Mental health problems have become more serious due to rapid industrial development, the increase in single-person households, the collapse of families and communities and excessive competition, but it can be said that there has been almost no full-scale investment at the national level, as individuals avoid revealing the issue and seek treatment."

Yoon stressed that mental health issues should not be left to be taken care of by individuals but be made into an important national agenda to actively seeking solutions.

"In an era of low birthrates, we need to drive national growth by solving people's mental health problems and improving their individual capabilities and quality of life," Yoon said. "The government will dramatically change the paradigm of mental health policy by restructuring the entire support system from prevention to treatment and recovery."

He also called to establish a mental care system where employees can easily receive professional counseling at work, school and in the community.

Yoon underscored that it is time for the state to step up taking care of people's mental health.

The plan will promote four key tasks: establish a daily mental health care system; reorganize mental health emergency response and treatment system; provide innovative welfare services for recovery; and improve public awareness.

Such measures are expected to increase the rate of use mental health services, which was at 12.1 percent of the population as of 2021, to 24 percent by 2030.

Furthermore, mandatory suicide prevention education will be provided annually for 16 million people, including students, starting next July.

Such public campaigns to help spread awareness will be supplemented by introducing integrated hotlines and counseling through social media.

The suicide prevention hotline will integrate several other services for reporting and counseling at "109."

The number of counselors at the hotline will also be increased from the current 80 to 100 next year, and counseling through social will also be introduced for teenagers and people who prefer texting over calls.

It will also encourage regular checkups through mental health self-diagnosis sites that can be easily accessed through messaging app KakaoTalk and the Naver portal.

The mental health care system will also be restructured so that patients with severe mental illnesses can receive continuous treatment and management, the Health Ministry said.

The government will set up joint response centers for mental health specialists and police officers in the 17 cities and provinces nationwide to enable 24-hour dispatch to emergency sites.

The government plans to double the number of emergency beds for psychiatric patients nationwide and allow for intensive case management if there is a risk of harm to oneself or others. It will also seek ways to lower treatment costs for long-term patients.

However, the government said discussions will continue on the issue of whether judicial authorities have the right to hospitalize mentally-ill people who could harm themselves, or others, for public safety reasons.

Yoon said that a presidential mental health policy innovation committee will also be established to oversee infrastructure and investments in such mental health care initiatives.

"Through bold investments in people's mental health, we will create a society where all people can use mental health services anytime and anywhere, and people with mental illnesses can receive proper treatment and live together," Health Minister Cho Kyoo-hong said.

BY SARAH KIM [[email protected]]