Korea’s failure on suicide prevention shows national duty at stake

Two problems explain the repeated failure. First, the targets were set unscientifically. Authorities set numerical goals without careful analysis of causes, realities and shifting contexts, reducing strategy to wishful thinking. Second, implementation was weak. Budgets, personnel, infrastructure and data sharing were insufficient. Governments limited themselves to campaigns and counseling programs while neglecting structural risk factors that drive suicide. Unrealistic goals and feeble execution became the pattern. Above: An SOS Life Line phone box is seen at Mapo Bridge in Seoul