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.
