The conversation about mental health is a difficult one, especially in Asian countries. South Korea has been known to struggle with overwhelmingly high rates of suicide due to its highly competitive culture in its many domains—i.e., education and career. In a study about the increasing prevalence of depression in South Korea by Kim, Jo, & Shin (2020), they found that in 2017, depression was found to be the third leading cause of years lived with disability after low back pain and headache disorders. Furthermore, they found that the annual prevalence of depression as estimated by medical records of diagnosis increased during the study period, from 2002 to 2013. More specifically, it was 3.7% in 2006 and 4.8% in 2011, which is higher than 2.5% in 2006 and 3.1% in 2011 as reported by previous survey studies (Kim, Jo, & Shin, 2020). The annual prevalence of depression was 5.3% in 2013, which was the highest among those reported in South Korea and similar to that of high-income (5.5%) and low- to middle-income countries (5.9%) as published in a previous cross-national study. In another report by the World Health Organization (WHO) on the mental health system in Korea, they stated an important fact that even though Korea has a sufficient number of professional experts in the area of mental health, few mental health services are integrated in the country’s primary health care system. I found that to be an extremely shocking fact because I wasn’t even aware that there was a “sufficient” number of professional experts for mental health in Korea, if anything, I thought there wasn’t enough. Furthermore, the WHO stated that there’s a small proportion of psychiatric beds available in the public sector and the number of human resources working in the public sector is relatively low compared to developed countries. There also haven’t been effective public education and awareness campaigns on mental health so far in Korea (WHO, 2006). Even in a recent 2021 study by Lee et al. on the deterioration of mental health despite successful control of COVID-19 pandemic in South Korea, they found a drastic increase of clinical levels of depression, anxiety, or stress to be above the base rate reported by previous studies conducted in South Korea prior to the pandemic. As someone who’s minoring in psychology, I found this all to be extremely concerning but also fascinating due to the major differences seen when compared to the U.S.. Also, in my personal experience, I found that older Koreans have more conservative views on mental illness and, if anything, believe it’s something you just have to ignore and focus on working harder. I feel like the issue has only been magnified due to the many unfortunate losses of Korean idols the past couple of years, stating online abuse and the pressure of the industry as factors leading to their suicides. Hopefully Korea starts to implement more preventative measures on this issue along with treatment availability that doesn’t simply rely on prescription drugs—i.e., therapy and awareness on other drug-free treatments.
Cultural Artifacts:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-74119-4
https://www.who.int/mental_health/evidence/korea_who_aims_report.pdf?ua=1
Replies
Hi Erica, I have also noticed the mental health problem that existing in the current Korean society. I have also watched the Korean drama True Beauty which reveals the appearance pressure in Korea. I really hope the mental health problem can be solved because there are so many young people who are suffering from that.