21.4% of Gyeonggi-do Home Treatment Center and Self-Treatment Patients Need 'Psychological Support'

[Asia Economy (Suwon) = Reporter Lee Young-gyu] An evaluation of the mental health of COVID-19 patients admitted to residential treatment centers and those undergoing self-treatment in Gyeonggi Province revealed that 2 out of 10 individuals belong to a high-risk group requiring psychological support.

Gyeonggi Province announced on the 16th that it conducted a mental health assessment of 23,695 people who were admitted to residential treatment centers (21,722 people) or self-treated (1,973 people) in the province from May 18 to August 31, resulting in these findings.

The high-risk group requiring psychological support was counted at 3,611 people, accounting for 21.4% of the total.

Among them, 20.9% (3,405 people) were residential treatment center patients, and 32.2% (206 people) were self-treatment subjects.

Regarding the symptoms of these high-risk individuals (multiple responses possible), 51.7% (1,867 people) of confirmed cases reported mild or higher levels of depression, followed by post-traumatic stress symptoms (requiring attention or higher) at 24.7%, and psychological distress (total score of 7 or higher out of 10) at 13.2%.

The depressive stage with suicide risk was also confirmed at 10.4%.

As a result of conducting a total of 4,820 telephone counseling sessions for the high-risk group, the most common counseling content was difficulties in returning to daily life, accounting for 40.6% (1,958 people).

This was followed by frustration with isolation life (32.6%), concerns about physical health aftereffects (13.7%), worries about transmitting COVID-19 to others (7.4%), and anxiety due to suspension of economic activities (3.2%).

Accordingly, the province plans to strengthen the psychological support services of the "COVID-19 Confirmed Patient Psychological Support Team," which has been operating since May.

The province’s psychological support team individually provides the names and contact information of psychological support counselors so that residential treatment center patients and others can reach out if they need help, and supports psychiatric consultations and proxy prescriptions for self-treatment patients.

Recently, as the number of new domestic COVID-19 confirmed cases has been recording around 1,500 daily, the Gyeonggi Province psychological support team is also conducting counseling for about 200 people daily.

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