Gwangju City Launches Full-Scale 'Psychological Quarantine' to Overcome COVID-19 Blues

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Seon-gang] Gwangju Metropolitan City announced on the 7th that it will carry out multifaceted psychological quarantine measures to prevent mental health issues such as COVID-19 blues and to help psychological stability and return to daily life in preparation for the With Corona era.

The main contents of the psychological quarantine are ▲restructuring the psychological support system and expanding and strengthening services ▲launching a public campaign for mental recovery to overcome ‘COVID-19 blues’ ▲strengthening mental health self-assessment and 24-hour psychological counseling ▲free linkage support for high-risk mental health groups through ‘Mind Health Primary Care Physicians’ ▲continuous provision of psychological support services and psychological healing information.

So far, COVID-19 confirmed patients have received psychological support from the National Trauma Center and national mental health institutions, while isolated individuals and the general public have received about 6,400 psychological counseling sessions through the ‘COVID-19 Psychological Support Team’ composed of city and district mental health welfare centers and the ‘Psychological Support Teams’ of the five autonomous districts.

Gwangju City has included medical staff exhausted by COVID-19 as targets for psychological support, providing step-by-step psychological support such as burnout prevention education, mental health counseling reservation support, and non-face-to-face counseling by Mind Health Primary Care Physicians. Confirmed patients and isolated individuals will receive additional psychological support services, including a mental health guidebook with a self-assessment questionnaire and psychological stabilization kits, expanding and strengthening psychological support services.

Also, as part of psychological quarantine, the ‘Maeum Ppojjak’ practice campaign, which citizens can easily participate in daily life, will be launched from the 10th.

The ‘Maeum Ppojjak’ practice campaign encourages citizens to practice psychological quarantine rules such as ▲checking in on others ▲giving encouragement ▲sharing experiences, to wisely adapt to the With Corona era through communication, encouragement, and empathy with those around them.

Gwangju City will also hold an online event until the 18th of next month to encourage active citizen participation in the ‘Maeum Ppojjak’ practice campaign.

To participate in the event, citizens can leave comments related to the ‘Maeum Ppojjak’ rules on the Gwangju Metropolitan Mental Health Welfare Center website or social network systems (SNS - Instagram, Facebook), and a total of 303 people will be selected by lottery to receive a small mobile coupon.

In addition, the Metropolitan Mental Health Welfare Center’s ‘Maeum Ppojjak’ website has newly established a ‘COVID-19 Blues Self-Assessment’ section where citizens can check their mental health anytime and, if professional consultation is needed, be linked to free counseling with Mind Health Primary Care Physicians.

Meanwhile, Gwangju City plans to support citizens’ mental health resilience recovery by producing promotional videos for the ‘Maeum Ppojjak’ campaign, 24-hour hotline counseling, and Mind Health Primary Care Physician projects, and continuously promoting them through various media such as TV public service advertisements, city electronic billboards, Gwangju city internet broadcasting, and bus arrival information systems starting next month.

Park Hyang, Director of the Welfare and Health Bureau of the city, said, “Anxiety, stress, and resulting depression related to infectious diseases are normal emotions that occur in infection crisis situations, but at times like these, taking care of your own mental health and communicating and empathizing with those around you helps mental recovery. The mental health counseling phone line is open 24 hours, so if you are struggling, I hope you seek expert help anytime.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.