SEOUL: South Korea’s efforts to curb its alarming suicide rate are being undermined by a deep-rooted belief that seeking help for mental problems leads to social and professional exclusion, health experts say.
Suicide, fuelled by an intense pressure for academic and career achievement, has become a perennial blight on a country whose rapid economic development has otherwise raised living standards and encouraged social mobility.
Figures released by the Health Ministry earlier this month showed South Korea’s 2009 suicide rate of 33.8 people per 100,000 was the highest among member nations of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
Hungary was a distant second with a rate of 23.3, followed by Japan with 22.2.
The figure for South Korea equates to nearly 50 suicides a day and shows a sharp increase from 2000 when the incidence of suicide was 13.6 people per 100,000.
“This is a very stressful society where worldly success weighs too heavily on people’s mentality,” said psychiatrist Lee Dong-Woo, spokesman of the Korea Neuro-Psychiatric Association.
“As a side-effect from the country’s economic success, pressure to succeed in schools and jobs has intensified to an intolerable degree,” Lee said.
The government has taken some steps to address the problem, including short-term preventive measures like placing CCTV cameras on bridges over Seoul’s Han river and monitoring websites for material encouraging suicides.
A law implemented in March to foster a “life-respecting culture” offered longer-term measures, including a nationwide survey, a government-run 24-hour emergency call service and a national network of suicide prevention centres. But both health officials and experts acknowledge that increased access to counselling has only a limited impact in a culture that traditionally emphasises the virtues of stoicism and self-reliance.
“Koreans are highly reluctant to talk openly about mental health problems for fear of being socially stigmatized and discriminated against at work,” said Lee Jung-Kyu, a deputy director in the Health Ministry.
AFP
