The city of Seoul will expand a 24-hour call center to halve suicide rates

SEOUL, Oct. 28 (Yonhap) — Seoul city authorities will more than double the size of a 24-hour call center for people struggling with suicidal impulses and establish social networks for people at risk of suicide, aiming to reduce suicide rates, officials said Monday.

The plans were revealed amid the Seoul city government’s intention to change its suicide prevention policy from focusing solely on high-risk individuals to targeting the broader public, with the goal of reducing the city’s suicide rate by 50 percent by 2030.

Last year, the city’s suicide rate was 23.2 per 100,000 residents, the highest rate since 2015.

Recent studies show that 1 in 2 Seoul residents consider themselves to have mental problems, while the percentage of people who have experienced depression has increased by 1.9 percentage points to 8.5 percent in the past five years.

According to the plans, the city plans to increase the number of employees of the 24-hour Maumieum Counseling Telephone call center for people struggling with suicidal impulses from the current 12 to 30 by 2026.

Additional advisory channels will also be added, including: KakaoTalk communicator and chatbot.

The city will also launch a local program in which community leaders, area doctors and store owners will be tasked with actively identifying people at high risk of suicide and referring them to counseling services for help.

The city will also establish a suicide prevention policy control tower called the “Seoul City Suicide Prevention Committee” to more closely analyze suicide statistics and conduct psychological autopsies on suicide cases.