‘Korea's mental health budget is less than half of WHO’s advice’

A lawmaker pointed out that the proportion of the government's health budget devoted to mental health falls far short of the WHO’s recommendation of 5 percent. (Credit: Getty Images)

One in four Koreans experiences mental illness at least once in their lives.

Still, the share of mental health outlay in the government’s total healthcare budget falls far short of the 5 percent, as recommended by the World Health Organization, according to a report.

Rep. Kang Eun-mi, a member of the National Assembly's Health and Welfare Committee, said so on Thursday after analyzing data submitted by the Ministry of Health and Welfare.

According to Kang, the one-year prevalence rate of mental illness in Korea in 2021 was 8.5 percent and the lifetime prevalence rate was 27.8 percent, meaning that one in four Koreans have experienced mental illness at least once in their lives. The socio-economic cost of mental illness is also increasing by about 10 percent annually from 11.3 trillion won ($8.43 billion) in 2015.

However, the proportion of investment in mental health as a percentage of the overall health budget has remained "flat" until this year, after increasing from 1.5 percent in 2019 to 1.6 percent in 2020 and 1.9 percent in 2021.

According to data submitted by the ministry, the mental health budget amounted to 315.8 billion won, or 1.9 percent of the total health budget of 16.96 trillion won, in the 2023 budget.

Rep. Kang also pointed to the poor performance of the government's Second Basic Plan for Mental Health and Welfare. The plan, which was implemented in 2021, aims to invest 2 trillion won by 2025 to detect mentally ill people early, improve the environment of closed wards, and better the functioning of the National Center for Mental Health.

Kang also checked the second Basic Plan for Mental Health and Welfare through the ministry and found nine areas of performance indicators in 2021-2022 regressed further compared to 2020, five remained unchanged, and six recorded no performance at all.

The indicators that did not perform well were:

▲Rates of community mental health promotion education

▲Rates of secondary screening at specialized institutions for those with high depression risks

▲Psychiatric emergency response time

▲Introduction of a specialized addiction hospital system

▲Mental Health and Welfare Policy Review Committee

▲The number of new policy indicators created in the mental health field from the perspective of consumers

The ministry also acknowledged that its performance has been poor in the aftermath of Covid-19.

"Recently, the social and economic burden of mental health problems has been increasing, and although the mental health sector is a highly effective area for investment, the budgetary investment and policy results are very insufficient," Rep. Kang said. "It also falls way short of achieving the goals of the Second Basic Plan for Mental Health and Welfare. Active budgetary investment and policy implementation efforts are needed to improve people's mental health."