"Suicide Prevention Budget and Organizational Shortage... Local Governments' Total Budget Only 0.02%"

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Young-won] Despite an increase in suicides due to complex factors such as the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic and rising depression, a survey revealed that the budget for suicide prevention accounts for only about 0.022% of the total budget of 229 local governments.

The Citizens' Coalition for Safe Living and the Life Insurance Social Contribution Committee announced the results of the "2021 Basic Local Governments' Suicide Prevention and Life Respect Promotion Activity Survey" containing this information on the 1st.

This survey was conducted through a written questionnaire from September 28 to October 31 targeting 229 local governments nationwide.

The survey results showed that the national suicide prevention budget slightly increased compared to the previous year but remained at a low level. In 2021, the national suicide prevention budget was 51.37241 billion KRW, an increase of 0.005% from the previous year, accounting for about 0.022% of the total local government budget (approximately 237 trillion KRW).

By metropolitan local governments, Gyeonggi-do had the highest average budget at 429 million KRW, followed by Chungnam with 328 million KRW, and Seoul with 315 million KRW. The region with the smallest suicide prevention budget was Jeonnam at 111 million KRW.

There were 11 local governments without suicide prevention-related organizations, about three times more than in 2020 (4 places). Only 38 local governments (16.59%) operated suicide prevention centers requiring expertise for suicide prevention, indicating a strong need for establishing practical suicide prevention organizations, according to the Citizens' Coalition for Safe Living. The majority of local governments, 202 (88.21%), operated suicide prevention organizations through external mental health welfare centers, while 87 (37.99%) operated them as internal organizations.

The number of regular employees within the organizations increased by 2.35 from the previous year to 3.46. The proportion of specialized personnel was higher in larger local governments. Local governments with populations over 300,000 had an average of 18.49 specialized personnel, those with populations between 50,000 and less than 300,000 had 12.01, and those with populations under 50,000 had 6.38.

Meanwhile, according to the 2021 Cause of Death Statistics by Statistics Korea, the number of suicides in 2021 was 13,352, an increase of 157 from the previous year.

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