Community Mental Health in South Korea

Abstract

The predominantly Confucian and Buddhist culture of pre-modern South Korean society viewed mental illness from a folk conception, and this notion has remained in modern-day South Korea. This underlying belief that people with mental illness are morally tainted and dangerous proved to be most challenging when crafting the mental health policies and services in 1995 that were subsequently enacted as the first “Mental Health Act,” which transformed South Korea’s mental health system from one where people with mental illness were isolated in a facility to one which seeks to integrate into the community. Since then, the South Korean government put in place the 5-year National Mental Health Promotion Plans in 2011 and 2016, which mainly enhanced deinstitutionalization and mental health in primary care, developing mental health services, delivery system, and human resources (mental health professionals). In 2016, the Mental Health Act was changed to “Act on the Improvement of Mental Health and the Support for Welfare Services for Mental Patients” (commonly called Mental Health Welfare Act), which marked the rebirth of the law reflecting on promoting human dignity, human rights, and recovery-based practice environment. Even though the South Korean government has developed and implemented the new Act, policy, and plans for improving mental health every five years over the past three decades, new challenges and issues keep emerging – it is necessary to consider the balance between mental health promotion, early intervention, treatment, and rehabilitation. Additionally, efficiency and accessibility of mental health services and services integration should be much improved, and the current mental health services and delivery systems should be examined for further improvement.