The Korea Times
May is observed around the world as Mental Health Awareness Month. In Korea, the month arrives with a figure that has remained unchanged in 20 years: the highest suicide rate among OECD countries. The government has not been idle. Mental health services have expanded, consultation fees have fallen and routine screening is now common in primary care. Yet the numbers stay the same. The root of this stalled crisis lies not in a pharmacy but in a government office. For instance, Britain appointed a minister for loneliness in 2018. This position was a formal recognition that isolation is a medical condition that merits a state response. Research backed the move. Chronic loneliness now carries a mortality risk comparable to smoking 15 cigarettes a day. Psychiatric care in most countries, Korea included, rests on the assumption that despair reflects a chemical imbalance that medication can correct. For many patients, this is true, and the medication saves their lives. For many others, it is not. The wound is rooted somewhere else. Imagine someone who has lost a job, a marriage or even a child.
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