Gwangju City, Suicide Prevention Project Shows Remarkable Results

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Seon-gang] The suicide prevention project promoted by Gwangju Metropolitan City has shown significant results in reducing the local suicide rate.

According to Statistics Korea, the suicide rate in Gwangju Metropolitan City in 2019 was 23.9 per 100,000 people, a 7% decrease from the previous year, ranking third lowest among the 17 cities and provinces nationwide for two consecutive years.

So far, Gwangju City has carried out projects such as ▲creating a social environment through suicide prevention campaigns and publicity ▲building networks to identify high-risk groups for suicide ▲strengthening community capacity by training suicide prevention personnel ▲establishing a 24-hour suicide crisis emergency response system through public-private cooperation ▲post-management of suicide attempters based in emergency rooms ▲and providing one-stop services for suicide survivors.

In particular, to prevent recurrence of suicide attempts, the city has implemented the ‘Emergency Room-Based Post-Management Project for Suicide Attempters’ in cooperation with Chonnam National University Hospital, Chosun University Hospital, and small to medium-sized hospitals, providing treatment and counseling services to suicide attempters linked from emergency rooms and preventing deaths and repeated attempts among high-risk groups.

Additionally, since September 2019, Gwangju has been piloting the ‘One-Stop Service Project for Suicide Survivors,’ which identifies and provides integrated support to suicide survivors who require focused management as a high-risk group but are often neglected due to stigma and prejudice.

This project positively impacts the reduction of suicide rates by alleviating difficulties faced by survivors and providing focused management to prevent successive suicide crises.

The main services include providing customized integrated support to survivors immediately after a suicide incident, such as ▲initial counseling ▲legal and administrative assistance ▲scholarships ▲temporary housing ▲and psychological support.

Since the pilot project, the number of identified survivors has increased 4.3 times, and the number of survivors registered for focused management has increased 3.6 times. Notably, there have been no suicide deaths among the identified survivors.

Moreover, the Gwangju-type public-private cooperative 24-hour suicide crisis emergency response system has been recognized as a model case for proactively securing a mental health social safety net through ▲24-hour crisis counseling phone operation ▲on-site joint dispatch with police and fire departments ▲and designation and operation of SOS hotline psychiatric medical institutions capable of emergency admission during nights and holidays. In June, this Gwangju model was successfully expanded nationwide.

Furthermore, to respond to the increased counseling demands and night dispatches after COVID-19, Gwangju expanded the night shift staff at the Gwangju Suicide Prevention Center from 6 to 12 in July and has been strengthening the emergency intervention team and response system.

Park Hyang, Director of the Welfare and Health Bureau of Gwangju City, stated, “By utilizing various community resources and promoting systematic suicide prevention projects through multidisciplinary cooperation, we have been able to maintain a low suicide rate ranking. We will continue to actively work to reduce the suicide rate through securing community support systems and proactive crisis intervention.”

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