마ě?Œ maeum an educational kit for raising mental health awareness
마음 maeum
Claire Seonjae Choi IND 402 - 04 | Nourishment & Social Change Prof. Amanda Huynh Spring 2020 | Pratt Institute
Claire Seonjae Choi www.claireschoi.com clairechoidesign@gmail.com +1 762.323.8872
Table of Content
06
Overview
08
Topic Introduction
13
Design Opportunity
14
Objective
15
Research
17
Research synthesis
18
Strategy & Ideations
22
Implementation
29
Reference
31
Reflection
6
Overview
Maeum is an educational kit for raising mental health awareness in South Korea, targeted for 5, 6th grade elementary school students. The kit is designed to be implemented in public schools by Government and used periodically in class as a part of existing school curriculum. Also, it consists of activities that would help students learn about mental health without aversion.
7
Topic Introduction
Initially, I started the concept development from suicide, one of the biggest social problems in South Korea. Compared to other Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries in 2019, the country’s suicide rate is 26.6 deaths per 100,000 persons, which is almost double of the OECD average (Figure 1). We live in the age of well-being, but in one side of society, the act of killing oneself is repeated and pervasive. As a Korean citizen, I feel a strong need to reduce the suicide rate and want to contribute to minimize many people’s pains. There are variety of factors that lead people to suicidal attempts; it is quite difficult to identify all of the reasons clearly because everyone is in different circumstances and suicide is the result of complex combination of socio-economic, cultural, or health-related reasons. However, there’s common point between people attempted suicide. According to the psychological autopsy done between 2015-2017 in Korea, 87.5% of suicidees had 8
depression and/or other mental disorders but 85% of them didn’t receive proper treatment at the hospital (Figure 2). The consumption of antidepressant in Korea is the second lowest out of that of 34 countries, which is almost half of the average consumption rate (Figure 3). Naturally, it has resulted low depression cure rate in South Korea, which is only around 10%. Why is the mental illness treatment rate in South Korea so low? The atmosphere in Korean society plays a major role. One of the characteristics of South Korean society is citizens negative perception about mental disorder. Many people are reluctant to go to psychiatry and worried if they would get disadvantages from going to department of psychiatry or if someone they know would find out about their mental illness. Quite a lot of people with mental disorder are hiding their situations even from their families. Another one is lack of mental helath awareness; in Korea, depression still tends to be considered as a weakness or a lack of will, rather than a disease.
Figure 1 : OECD Countries’ Suicide Rate Comparison
Korean psychological Autopsy Data
Source : Korean Psychological Autopsy Center
Figure 2 : Analysis from Korean Pschological Autopsy Center
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Figure 3 : Antidepressant Consumption Comparison (Source : OECD)
10
Figure 4 : Subway platform screendoor & Bridge of Life on Mapo Bridge in Seoul
It is highly likely that the report rate of depression and other mental disorders will be lower than the actual rate, as there are many cases in which people feel ashamed or hide the disease itself due to social prejudice towards mental illness and psychiatric treatment. The government has been striving to curb the suicide epidemic by implementing campaigns, such as 생명의 다리 (Bridge of Life) on Mapo Bridge and subway platform screendoor (Figure 4). However, these installations are mainly dealing with suicide sites, and the results have not been very effective. At this point, it is necessary to focus on fundamental solutions rather than a suicide spot-based method.
suicide. 92.0% of suicidees showed a warning signal to people around them prior to death, and one out of every three people who thought of committing suicide gives up suicide when they are asked about depression or suicide. They change their mind because they think there’s someone who tries or wants to understand them. They don’t want to die but escape the emotional distress that afflicts them. To express our feelings honestly and ask for help should be much easier than to take our own lives.
It is true that government-level policies play a major role in preventing suicide, however, policies become useless if members of a society are reluctant to actively have conversation about mental health or suicide. Despite the high suicide rate, countless people still don’t know how to communicate with those who are thinking of committing 11
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How might we de-stigmatize mental disorders and empower people to step forward to seek for help?
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Design Opportunity
Suicidal ideation doesn’t happen overnight; people attempt suicide after much contemplation and pain. What we need to reduce suicide rate is to create social atmosphere where one recognizes symptoms of mental disorders and can seek out for help without fear and concern. In order to do that, it is crucial to educate citizens to have better understanding of the importance of mental health.
According to the recent research, more than 95% of the teachers and 84.1% of the students expressed the need for mental health education enhancing protective factors in school. Specifically, both teachers and students demanded the education about stress management, how to resolve conflicts in interpersonal relationships, management of mental disorders for students.
Current Korean education curriculum doesn’t talk enough about mental health. The mental health education was given a low priority among health education units in schools. Today’s Korean mental health education (which is lecture based) mainly focuses on suicide and/ or reducing risk factors of them and is done only one to two times in a semester. However, learning about suicide does not really prevent suicide attempts and incidents of self harm.
I thought there is definitely room for improvement to make the education more effective and came up with the conclusion that more effective mental health education should be done in order to normalize mental health care and de-stigmitize the mental disorder.
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Objective
The objective of this project is to provide children better opportunity to learn about mental health, especially about protective factors, which will become useful skillsets for them to manage their emotions, thoughts, and minds as they grow up . Considering the conservative attitude towards mental health issues that is already settled in the adult generation in Korean society, education in early age will be easier to ~ civic awareness of mental helath.
Aeger, Charlotte. https://www.charlotteager.co.uk/soho-house-mental-health
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Research
Interview with Ms.Dina Schapiro Assistant Chairperson at Creative Arts Therapy department at Pratt Institute
--
Art therapy is to utilize the creative process and aesthetic decision making in their clinical work Art Therapy is an integrative mental health and human services profession that enriches the lives of individuals, families, and communities through creative process within a psychotherapeutic relationship. It is utilized to support personal and relational treatment, improve self-esteem and self-awareness, cultivate emotional resilience, enhance social skills, and reduce and resolve conflicts and distress.
distinct from verbal articulation alone by allowing one to express onself through kinesthetic, sensory, perceptual, and symbolic opportunities which can overcome the limitations of language. Especially, since it is targeted for teenagers, integrating elements from art therapy, such as creative activities, would not only draw more attention but also let the students have various outlets to express themselves.
I thought art therapy would be a great methodology which would be effective for acheiving the goal of this project. The key findings from the interview with Ms. Schapiro was that art therapy engages the mind, body, and spirit in ways that are 15
Hye-Shin Jeong, Psychiatry specialist -From Sebasi Talk, one of most famous lecture platforms in Korea, Phychiatry specialist Hye-Shin Jeong gave a speech about mental health and shared her experience and insights. I watched the of her lecture about a year ago before I began this project and was impressed by her message. Doctor Jeong talks about the importance and power of empathy and repeats “One’s heart is always right”. For our mental health, it is crucial to think “there’s nothing wrong with me and my feelings, I have my reasons behind my emotions”; applying the same concept, we need to have this mindset when we talk with people in trouble. With reassurance and emotional support, they can rely on the presence of someone who recognizes them for who they are and they become less insecure.
With reassuarance, one becomes rational and can look at things objectively. Then it becomes very clear what the next step should be. When people are allowed to express their pain and troubles, without fear of criticism and judgement, without being denied and when they can be recognized and accepted as they are, they can then breathe a sigh of relief. This will become the psychological foundations from which to move forward to help themselves to live well. Jeong says that in order to make mentally healthier society, we should learn to understand and acknowledge my emotion and others. We need to think about what we like/hate, when we feel happy/angry/sad/excited.
Hye-Shin Jeong, Psychiatry specialist from Sebasi Talk
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Research Synthesis
Curriculum -Based on the findings from primary and secondary research, I designed the general curriculum for the kit; considering the fact that emotional validation and understanding oneself is very crucial for mental health, I created a main unit about learning how to recognize one’s and other’s emotion, properly express feelings and how to manage stress.
Second main unit is about learning about mental disorders, early symptoms of them, importance of early treatment, and how to communicate with mentally ill people.
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Strategy
Precedents --
I found some precedents of how design can en-
These three examples show packaging design
hance the learning experience.
can make the experience with the educational objects more exciting. Inspired by these prec-
First one is a CPR kit; the way its packaging was
edents, I decided to design an educational kit
designed creates feeling of anticipation as
for mental health education.
user opens the kit and makes the user wonder what they will see inside of the package. Second one is a science kit which contains parts and instruction to build science experiment. The use of experiment kit among students is common in South Korea, so using the concept of kit will be familiar to students. Last one is welcome kit usually provided by companies in Korea for incoming employees. This kit intuitively introduces the company’s identity lets new employees to have better understanding of the atmosphere of company and feel more comfortable.
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GS Caltex’s welcome kit
cprCUBE
Commax’s welcome kit
Science Experiment Kit
Pentabreed’s welcome kit
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Ideation
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Components --
3D Prototype for size --
implementation
Branding Design
The title of this kit, 마음 maeum is a Korean word which can be translated as Heart and mind ; in fact, it is actually a bit more complicated than just heart and mind. 마음 refers to the aspect of one’s intelligence and consciousness revealed through a composite of how human thinks, perceives, feels, memorizes, and imagines about other people and/or entities. This includes all the cognitive processes. In other words, 마음 is the origin of emotion, desire, thoughts, and conscience. I chose this word because I thought it best describes the essence of this project.
Color Palette --
Typography --
나눔스퀘어 라운드 Nanum Square Round Regular 에스코어 드림 S-Core Dream ExtraLight
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Concept --
The overall concept of the design is “Journey”. I interpreted this mental health education as one’s journey to find true-self and to guide how they should treat not only others but also themselves. With the activities from the kit, students will be able to explore their emotions.
Themed illustrations --
Features
Overall dimension -Since this kit is to be part of elementary school curriculum, I decided to design the kit to fit with the other textbooks. Considering the most commonly used textbook size -- 190*260mm, the dimension of the kit is 192*260*35mm. The dimension of textbook is 190*171*5mm.
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When students need to take out only textbook from the kit and put it into their backpack, the width of the textbook will fit with the rest of textbooks.
Exploded view
25 Size comparison with 6th grade textbooks
Emotion Weather Display + Mini - Timetable
Activity Cards
DIY Luggage Tag Set
DIY Luggage Tag Papercover Instruction
Textbook Cover Design
26
Once the student opens a kit, they will see the middle cover with luggage-themed illustration which shows what’s inside of typical luggage for traveling.
When they flip over the middle cover, there’s envelope with stickers and postcards. On the main part of container, Emotion Weather Display, DIY luggage tag set, and the textbook are placed.
Below the textbook, there are personal diary, activity cards, and color pens.
28
Reference
Dong-A, 한국, OECD 국가 중 자살률 1위...하루 37.5명꼴. [South Korea, Highest suicide rate among OECD countries...
37.5 deaths a day] (2019, September 24). Retrieved from http://www.donga.com/news/article/all/
20190924/97559045/1 EBS Documentary. (2013). 다큐프라임-33분마다 떠나는 사람들 [ DocuPrime - People leaving every 33 minutes]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1vmyMImxQc Hong, S. B. (2016). Causes of Suicide and Countermeasures. Suicide Prevention Research Council. http://endotoday.com/endotoday/suicide_04.pdf Kim, B. (2017, June 4). 지하철 스크린도어 설치에 한강으로 간 자살자들 [Suicidees going to the Han River after setting
up the subway screen door]. Retrieved from https://www.asiae.co.kr/article/2017060409522537182.
Korea Suicide Prevention Center. (2019). Retrieved from http://spckorea-stat.or.kr/. Korea Psychological Autopsy Center. (2017). 심리부검분석 결과자료 [Psychological Autopsy Result Data]. Retrieved
from http://www.psyauto.or.kr/sub/data_02.asp.
Lee, E. (2018, November 23). “OECD 자살 1위 오명 벗는다” 국무총리가 이끄는 자살예방정책위원회 신설. [“Let’s clear
the disgrace of No.1 suicide rate” Suicide Prevention Policy Committee led by Prime minister established]
Retrieved from https://news.joins.com/article/23151217
Lee, H. (2014, July 3). 자살원인 80%는 ‘이것‘...주변인 관심이 절실 [80% of the cause of suicide is ‘this‘... Attention
from the people around them is desparate]. Retrieved from http://m.health.chosun.com/svc/news_
view.html?contid=2014070202908 OECD (2019), Suicide rates (indicator). doi: 10.1787/a82f3459-en (Accessed on 29 November 2019) Park, Sang-hyun. (2018, January 23). 자살률 낮추기 위해 나선 정부의 계획은? [What is the governement’s plan to
reduce the suicide rate?] Retrieved from http://www.ccherald.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=1958
Sebasi Talk (세바시 강연). (2020, Octobor 15). You’re right | Jeong Hye-Shin, Psychiatrist | Healing
Relationship Life | Sebasi ep. 980 (당신이 옳다 | 정혜신 치유자, 정신건강의학과 전문의 | 치유 힐링 관계
인생 | 세바시 980회). Retrieved from https://youtu.be/GmUgwL25j0o.
Seo, Han-gi. (2018, October 29). 한국 자살률 2016년 10만명당 25.8명...감소세에도 OECD 1위 [Korea’s suicide rate is
25.8 per 100,000 people in 2016…No. 1 in the OECD despite the declining trend].
Retrieved from https://www.yna.co.kr/view AKR20181026111300017.
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Reflection
Although the pandemic did not have a
If I have more time to work on this project,
significant impact on the direction of the
I’d like to work on the details of the activities
project, as people has raised concerns
and the textbook and how to integrate digital
about mental health due to the prolonged
elements such as app and website to
situation, I felt the stronger need for mental
enhance
the
accessbility
of
education.
health education for the quality of life of people living in unstable society in unprecendented times. I think it’s a time when it’s becoming increasingly important to think and talk about how to approach our lives and how to interact with each other for everyone’s mental health in the present and future. I believe Maeum can be a great stepping
stone
for
younger
the
themselves
for
people,
generation,
throughout
their
especially to
guide
lifetime. 31
