"Beyond Mental Health: Tackling Poverty and Debt to Reduce Annual Suicide Deaths Below 10,000"

6th Basic Plan for Suicide Prevention Public Hearing
Addressing Social and Economic Causes... Moving Beyond the "Application-Based" System for High-Risk Groups
Expanding Acute Psychiatric Intensive Care Beds to 2,000

The government has set a goal to reduce the annual number of suicide deaths to below 10,000 by 2030. It will shift its suicide prevention policies away from a primary focus on mental health counseling or treatment, to actively managing social and economic factors that cause suicide, such as poverty, debt, isolation, and caregiving burdens.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Korea Suicide Prevention Center for Hope held a public hearing on the "6th Basic Plan for Suicide Prevention (2026–2030)" at The Westin Josun Seoul on September 10, unveiling the blueprint for suicide prevention policies for the next five years.

The government's vision is "A society where everyone looks after everyone, making life protection a part of daily life in Korea." Based on provisional figures for 2025, the suicide rate is 27.3 per 100,000 people. The government plans to bring it down to 19.4 by 2029, and 18.9 by 2030. Officials explained that the 2030 target corresponds to the World Health Organization (WHO) recommendation of a 30% reduction.

Previously, in last year's National Suicide Prevention Strategy, the government laid out goals to reduce annual suicides to below 10,000 within five years, and to shed Korea's position as the top suicide rate country among OECD members within ten years. Subsequently, the government formed an inter-ministerial task force and recruited 40 people from 17 ministries to prepare countermeasures in nine different fields.

Jeon Jinah, Senior Research Fellow at the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs, who oversaw the study to establish the new plan, analyzed that the recent drop in suicides has gone beyond typical annual fluctuations. In 2023, the number of suicide deaths was 13,900—a decrease of 972 cases (6.5%) from the previous year. Between January and May 2024, the figure dropped by 12.3% year-on-year. Analysis of excess mortality for January to May 2024, using different baselines, also showed a consistently significant decline that exceeded ordinary levels of fluctuation.

However, the absolute suicide rate remains high, with a provisional rate of 27.3 per 100,000 people expected for 2025. In particular, the suicide rate among teenagers in 2024 reached a record high of 8.0 per 100,000, highlighting a deterioration in adolescent mental health. The elderly suicide rate remains high despite a downward trend. The government also identified the deepening of unemployment, economic hardship, and isolation as risk factors that could increase suicide rates, especially among young and middle-aged adults.

According to a survey by the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs on perceptions of suicide prevention policies, 21.0% of all respondents replied that they had ever thought about suicide, with the rate peaking at 24.5% among adolescent respondents. For the general population, financial difficulties were the primary reason for suicidal ideation, whereas academic problems were overwhelmingly cited among teenagers. Loneliness and isolation emerged as major factors common to all age groups.

The government cited the lack of proactive, cross-ministerial engagement as a key limitation of the previous (5th) basic plan. Even in crises related to the economy, finance, or unemployment, policies tended to focus on connecting high-risk groups with suicide prevention or mental health centers, instead of addressing fundamental issues such as income security or debt relief. Post-referral, interventions mainly centered on counseling and mental health services.

Thus, the 6th Basic Plan sets the following key directions: strengthening inter-ministerial accountability; expanding suicide prevention policy to the social safety net, including poverty and debt; active intervention and treatment in mental health; and overcoming the "application-based" support system through proactive identification of high-risk groups. The plan establishes nine main strategies: building a life safety net; strengthening mental health treatment for high-risk groups; preventing fundamental causes such as debt, poverty, isolation, and caregiving burdens; advancing management of suicide methods, places, and media; proactive management of high-risk groups; tailored strategies for different population segments; utilizing artificial intelligence (AI) and data; strengthening national and local government responsibility; and fostering a public-private partnership culture of respect for life.

Measuring and Predicting Risk in Call 109 Counseling with AI

The government plans to increase the number of acute mental illness intensive treatment beds from last year's 391 to 2,000 by 2030 and designate mental health emergency institutions as essential medical services. In addition, by removing income criteria, it will expand financial support for the treatment of suicide attempters and broaden national insurance coverage for medications used to treat treatment-resistant depression.

For mental health emergencies, the government will expand national joint response teams composed of police and mental health emergency staff, and increase the number of regional emergency and mental health emergency centers. When patients are discharged after emergency mental health hospitalization, mayors and district governors will be required to draw up post-discharge support plans for ongoing management, and patients' adherence to medication will be monitored through on-site visits or remote tracking.

The "application-based" support system, which previously only aided those who requested help, will also change. The government will establish legal grounds for collecting and using personal information for high-risk groups who do not consent to or discontinue counseling or treatment, and will introduce a system to persistently persuade and support them through visits and follow-up contacts.

Furthermore, the government will combine data on income, assets, debts, illnesses, and medical history to build an in-depth analysis system for suicide deaths, and develop a model to predict areas at high risk of suicide outbreaks using economic and social indicators.

The government will also leverage AI to analyze, in real time, the content and history of calls to the suicide prevention counseling hotline 109 and gauge risk levels accordingly. The plan includes analyzing all counseling content to detect newly emerging risk factors, as well as fully automating the monitoring and handling of suicide-inducing information online.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare will review feedback from the public hearing, discuss improvements with related ministries, and finalize the basic plan for suicide prevention through deliberation by the Suicide Prevention Policy Committee, chaired by the Prime Minister.

Minister of Health and Welfare Chung Eunkyung stated, "Suicide is not an individual's issue but a social problem that must be solved together. Through the 6th Basic Plan for Suicide Prevention, we will further strengthen the suicide prevention safety net over the next five years."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.