South Korea to Provide Mental Health Test for All Schools

South Korea – The South Korean Education Ministry stated on Wednesday it will provide mental health test available at all elementary, middle, and high schools starting in the new sementer in March. 

This aims to detect students at risk early amid worsening problems of teenage suicide and loners. 

The "mind EASY test" is composed of about 37 questions asking respondents about their emotions, anxiety, personal relations, psychological trauma or their school life, and will be provided online so that it can be taken anywhere and at any time, the ministry explained. 

Teachers are supposed to encourage students who appear to be emotionally unstable to take the test. 

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kesehatan mental saat pandemi covid-19

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• Pinkvilla

If results show students are in need of care, teachers can ask the student or their parents to seek out counseling or treatment.

Meanwhile, the number of teens and people in their 20s who have attempted suicide or injured themselves has increased by 50 to 70 percent over the couple of past years, according to a report released by the National Medical Center and National Emergency Medical Center on Wednesday.

Teenagers who have attempted suicide or harmed themselves has jumped 68.9 percent over the past five years from 95 cases per every 100,000 people in 2018, to 160.5 cases last year. 

As for those in their 20s, the rate increased 49.5 percent from 127.6 cases per 100,000 people to 190.8 cases in the same period.

Experts point to relationships being cut off after the pandemic and many facing difficulty finding jobs due to recession as the reasons for the huge leap in the number of young people harming themselves or attempting suicide.

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Teenagers who have attempted suicide or harmed themselves has jumped 68.9 percent over the past five years from 95 cases per every 100,000 people in 2018, to 160.5 cases last year.