National Agenda 'Mental Health'... Government Aims to Reduce Suicide Rate by 50% Within 10 Years

The government has set a goal to make mental health policy a national agenda to help recover the public's mental health, which has been on red alert since COVID-19. To this end, the inspection cycle for mental health checkups among young people will be shortened from 10 years to 2 years, and the list of disorders screened will be expanded to include not only depression but also schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. There is also a plan to provide professional psychological counseling support services to 1 million people by 2027.

On the 5th, the Ministry of Health and Welfare announced the ‘Mental Health Policy Innovation Plan’ to regularly support the mental health of the public. Last year, South Korea’s suicide rate was 25.2 per 100,000 people, ranking first among OECD countries, a dishonorable distinction. Amid rising mental health issues due to socioeconomic changes after COVID-19, this year, violent crimes committed by patients with mental illnesses such as schizophrenia have raised calls for a major shift in mental health policy.

Accordingly, the Ministry of Health and Welfare plans to promote key tasks for the prevention, early treatment, recovery, and support for returning to daily life of mental illnesses. Through this, they aim to reduce the suicide rate by 50% within 10 years.

First, starting with 80,000 people next year, professional psychological counseling will be provided to 1 million people by 2027. The purpose is to provide proactive counseling services to citizens experiencing emotional and psychological difficulties to prevent mental illnesses in advance and treat them early. The Ministry also announced plans to collaborate with related ministries such as the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Employment and Labor to expand centers that provide customized psychological counseling for university students, workers, and the unemployed.

The mental health checkup cycle for young people aged 20 to 34 will be shortened to 2 years. Currently, free checkups are available every 10 years for adults aged 20 to 70, but only for depression. In addition, the mental health checkup for youth will now include schizophrenia and bipolar disorder along with depression.

Severe mental illnesses will be treated promptly and managed continuously. Joint response centers staffed with mental health professionals and police officers will be established in all 17 provinces and metropolitan cities to enable 24-hour emergency dispatch to scenes involving severe mental illness. Regional mental emergency medical centers for patients with trauma and mental emergencies will be expanded nationwide by 2025, and the currently limited 139 mental emergency beds will be increased to ensure at least one bed per city, county, or district. This is to secure a minimum of one mental emergency bed per local government unit.

Following the ‘Seohyeon Station incident,’ the need to introduce a ‘judicial hospitalization system,’ where judicial authorities decide on the hospitalization of patients with severe mental illnesses, has grown. Regarding this, the Ministry of Health and Welfare stated, “We will begin social discussions for its introduction.” In response to criticism that treatment fees for mental illness are low, related fees will also be increased. Starting next year, fees for intensive management in closed wards and isolation protection in tertiary hospitals will be raised by 95%.

Continuous treatment after discharge is also important for severe mental illnesses. The Ministry plans to introduce a daytime ward service for less than 6 hours and reduce the out-of-pocket rate for long-acting injectable antipsychotics for schizophrenia, which are relatively expensive but have long-lasting effects.

For patients at risk of self-harm or harm to others, the ‘outpatient treatment support system,’ which allows the head of the city, county, or district office to decide on outpatient treatment support, will be activated. Additionally, procedures and systems will be established to enable information linkage (from medical institutions to mental health welfare centers) and treatment without the patient’s consent if necessary. Support for daily recovery of patients with severe mental illnesses will also be provided. The Ministry will check whether there are disadvantages in insurance enrollment for mental illness patients and conduct development research for insurance products tailored to them in cooperation with the Financial Services Commission. Furthermore, the number of mental health professionals will be increased from the current 194,000 to 228,000 by 2027, and their wages will be gradually raised.

Through these efforts, the Ministry aims to increase the utilization rate of mental health services from only 12.1% in 2021 to 24% by 2030, and reduce the average hospitalization period for mental illness patients from 186.6 days to 90 days during the same period.

Cho Kyu-hong, Minister of Health and Welfare, stated, “With bold investment in public mental health, we will create a society where all citizens can access mental health services anytime and anywhere, patients with mental illnesses receive proper treatment, and everyone can live together harmoniously.”

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