Seoul City Provides Special Psychological Support Services to All Citizens

On the 2nd, during the national mourning period following the Itaewon large-scale crush disaster, visitors continued to pay their respects at the memorial space set up near Itaewon Station in Yongsan-gu, Seoul. Photo by Kang Jin-hyung aymsdream@

[Asia Economy Reporter Moon Hyewon] The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced on the 2nd that it will provide special psychological support services to help citizens who were deeply shocked by the Itaewon tragedy regain psychological stability. Priority support will be given to citizens who witnessed the accident on site, and later expanded to all citizens.

The city will support citizens suffering from trauma due to this tragedy to receive depression and anxiety tests up to three times at 225 psychiatric medical institutions in the city. Information on participating medical institutions can be obtained by contacting 25 public health centers.

For bereaved families, face-to-face and non-face-to-face psychological support services will be provided to help them recover from the grief and wounds of losing their precious family members.

By calling and making a reservation at one of the four psychological support centers operated by Seoul (Northeast, Southeast, Southwest, Central), free testing will be available from the 3rd. Participating medical institutions are also guided through the health centers of the 25 autonomous districts.

At Seoul Plaza and the Itaewon joint memorial altar, a 'Disaster Psychological Support On-site Counseling Center' is operating, and counseling centers have also been set up at district mental health welfare centers. The Seoul city hotline providing counseling support is also in operation.

Additionally, help can be received through online platforms such as the National Trauma Center and Blue Touch.

Intensive psychological counseling will be provided not only to bereaved families and the injured but also to police officers, firefighters, and rescue participants who conducted rescue activities on site.

For people in their 20s who are at risk of trauma from the accident, ‘special psychological support’ will be implemented. From the 7th, the Suicide Prevention Center will operate an online 1:1 chat counseling service, providing psychological crisis counseling (relief from anxiety, guilt, sadness, etc.) through a KakaoTalk counseling program with advance reservations.

A ‘Mind Health School’ program will be operated from the 7th to the 15th of next month, offering cognitive behavioral therapy and stabilization technique programs (5 sessions) in groups of about 10 people, based on prior applications from 37 student counseling centers within universities.

Park Yumi, Director of the Seoul Metropolitan Government’s Citizen Health Bureau, said, "We will do our best to help citizens regain psychological stability and recover."