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Now that there’s some information out there about the possible causes to an adolescent’s mental health in South Korea, why is this topic not only discussed? If there is such a high suicide rate and mental health distressed rate, why is it still considered “weak” to talk about your mental health? While it is hard to change the mindset of an entire society, there have been some strides in the direction of change in the conversation of mental health.
A study conducted by the Yonsei University Institute for Social Development on happiness levels in children and youths was conducted and the results were shocking. The results showed that the South Korean youth populations were the least happy in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries (OECD).
Currently, in the country’s total health budget, mental health only takes up 3% of the budget. This number should be increased as mental health is an increasing problem amongst the population. Therefore, the obvious first step would be to establish a national mental health system and community-level services with training for more mental health professionals. In addition, different forms of assistance and prevention for youth should be implemented as well.
With the statistics rising, the South Korean government has started to take some action. In a bid to raise awareness of mental health issues and suicide prevention, the government initiated the National Youth Healing Center under the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family in 2012. The service recruits youths with mental health issues, such as ADHD and depression, who are willing to participate in the treatment program for four months. The Ministry of Health and Welfare also successfully finished a yearlong suicide prevention campaign “Are you OK? Air kiss campaign” which included an array of celebrities.
Korean celebrities have recently begun to be more open about their mental health - opening up about their different struggles with their anxiety, depression, and openly asking for hiatus to work on their health. For example, Mina from the girl group Twice took a long break from her group promotional activities due to anxiety and was later diagnosed with anxiety disorder. Celebrities coming forward and being open about their mental health comes after a string of tragic suicides by Korean idols SHINee’s Kim Jonghyun in 2018, f(x)’s Sullie (Choi Jin-Ri) and KARA’s Gu Hara in 2019.
Through the pressures of being on stage, on camera, stressed to look a certain way, to act a certain way, these celebrities suffer a lot of mental stress. And although these celebrities did speak out about their mental health issues, they were not taken seriously enough. They did not receive the help they needed or the support they needed and ultimately chose to end their lives. Korean media and the entertainment business has lost a lot of idols to multitudes of mental and physical health issues.
With celebrities being more open, it seems like the Korean public can feel more at ease to talk about mental health and mental illness. Although the stigma is still there, according to Dr. Noh Gyu-shik in an interview with the Korea Biomedical Review, “when celebrities talk about their experience with mental health treatment and pathologies, it has a positive impact on reducing the threshold for getting treatment. People think, “Oh, even people like that have that condition. It’s not just me.” It is the idea that celebrities, themselves, are also humans and they also have flaws - openly admitting to their flaws shows vulnerability but also show strength - that should be something that is passed on. While it is absolutely not ideal for idols to have to commit suicide for this topic to be brought to the forefront, having more advocates for the cause and speaking up about the benefits of getting help, allows the message to reach more people.
Besides celebrities, there are programs now being created to assist adolescents who have expressed mental stress. From 2011 to 2014, a nongovernmental organization called Korean Association for Suicide Protection worked with The Youth Health Progamme to encourage the creation and education of “gatekeepers”, people who are meant ot help identify citizens at-risk within their community. The Youth Health Programme from AstraZeneca helps to encourage ‘safeTALK’ through a training program that includes four stages: talk, ask, listen, and keep safe. This program was aimed at younger people who could hopefully use these techniques to speak with their friends openly if they see that they are struggling, identify any at risk of suicide, and to refer them to the right experts. In addition, they also facilitated the ASIST Education Program for Training Suicide Emergency Intervention Specialists - a program created to train professionals to help young people in crisis situations. Amazingly, these programs were able to reach 88,000 youths, with a total of 1,794 young gatekeepers (Peer Educators) and 782 teachers trained, and a successful 1,732 parents, teachers, politicians and community leaders fully engaged in the programme. And recently, the South Korean government also announced that $48.2 billion will be allocated for suicide prevention and mental health. This number is an increase of 7.7 percent from earlier years. While there does seem to be work being done to start the conversation towards a change, a lot of work still needs to be done and success can only be seen when the stigma of mental health in South Korea is recognized. It shouldn’t be called a weakness and it shouldn’t be looked down upon to ask for help. Asking for help when one is struggling should be seen as a sign of strength in recognizing your own weakness and it should be encouraged.
That is the sincere hope that moving forward, the conversation will change for the better and there be more work towards de-stigmatizing mental health and mental illness in South Korea. It is also with sincere hope that students are able to enjoy their youth without sacrifice and be able to have a bright future. Again, we need to tear down the wall and stop the stigma. Mental health is as important as physical health!