The government in Seoul has introduced a series of measures to reduce the suicide rate by 2030.
One of the measures is to increase the number of employees at a call center for people struggling with suicidal impulses, the Korean Herald reports.
The call center, also called the Maumeium Helpline, currently has 12 employees. The plan is to increase that number to 2026 by 30.
Politics suicide prevention, according to the Korean government, did not work well enough because it only focused on high-risk groups of people. Now they want to change that and shift the focus to the general public.
Last year, Seoul recorded its highest suicide rate since 2015: 23,2 people per 100.000 residents, according to city officials.
According to statistics, Korea is the country with the highest suicide rate. The rapid development of South Korea, which in a very short period of time has grown from a traditional, rural society to an urban one, has left a big mark on its inhabitants.
This particularly affects South Korea's most vulnerable population, the poor elderly.
"There is a whole field of suicides of old people who, when they are sick, do not take medicine," Cho Hin Seob, a Korean psychologist, told the Asian Times.
Another factor is the stigmatization of mental illness.
"Attitude towards mental health, which is kept a secret, about which many people remain silent for fear of judgment and misunderstanding. "Also, a large number of Koreans are very lonely," Hin Seob said.
What measures are in the plan?
The city government proposed to add another channel for counseling through KakaoTalk, a text message and chatbot system run by the city government.
Also, the government will provide subsidies for those who want to receive professional psychological help. The subsidy would be up to 80.000 won (about $58) per session over an eight-week period.
By 2026, the city government also aims to establish city government advisory centers in all 27 districts in Seoul. In those county counseling centers, mental health professionals and psychologists will provide initial mental health consultations and refer individuals to private psychological facilities if deemed necessary.
A Suicide Prevention Policy Oversight Committee, called the "Seoul City Suicide Prevention Committee," will also be introduced.
Serbia is among the leading countries in the number of suicides
Although Serbia is far behind Korea in terms of the number of committed suicides, the situation is worrying. Going to a psychiatrist or psychotherapist is a weakness, a shame and something that is not talked about - these are the dominant narratives in our society, dangerous and wrong.
According to statistics conducted by the World Health Organization in 2010, Serbia ranked tenth in the world in terms of the number of suicides.
During 2023, 668 cases of suicide were recorded in the country, according to the data of the Republic Institute of Statistics.
In 2020, the suicide rate in Serbia was about 13 people per hundred thousand citizens, three times more compared to Greece or twice compared to Italy.
Although experts say that it is very important to ask for help and talk about problems, only a fifth of the population in Serbia has ever turned to a psychotherapist, according to data from the 2022 Psychosocial Innovation Network (PIN) survey.
According to official data, Serbia is among the leading countries in terms of the number of suicides in the world. Last year, 254 people committed suicide in Vojvodina, among whom there were more men than women.
"The highest rates of suicides were registered in Severnobački district, where the rate was as high as 26,2 and in Severnobanatski district, it was 24,6," said Assoc. Dr. Ivana Radić from the Center for Health Promotion at the Institute for Public Health of Vojvodina, and reported by Ozon.
Prevention is key in mitigating the black numbers, and some of the concrete measures are control of access to means that can be used to commit suicide, establishment of crisis intervention centers, work with risk groups, responsible media reporting on suicide.
"Always with you"
The Clinic for Psychiatric Diseases "Dr. Laza Lazarevic" created a mobile application called "Always with you" in order to provide support and psychological help.
In addition to the questionnaire, the application contains educational material, as well as the contact of the SOS line for suicide prevention.
The educational material is rich in content related to the mental health of adolescents, but also terms such as anxiety, dementia, depression, stress. Also, content is offered that answers the question of why suicide is not a solution.
"Be yourself, be compassionate, listen, offer hope, take the suicidal person seriously." Do not - to convince yourself with a suicidal person, to react with surprise, shock or insult, to promise confidentiality, "states the advice to persons who have contact with a depressed person.
The content of the application addresses not only people who have some psychological difficulty, but also those who interact with them.
In addition to this application, however, new measures for suicide prevention have not been considered for a long time.
The national SOS line for suicide prevention is available 24 hours a day and can be reached by calling 0800 309 309, which is free.
Source: Korean Herald/Ozon/ RTS
