Nearly Half of Police Officers Suffer from PTSD
Programs for Counseling and Suicide Prevention Are Severely Lacking
Over the past five years, an average of more than twenty police officers have taken their own lives each year.
According to data received by Jeong Woo-taek, a member of the People Power Party on the National Assembly's Public Administration and Security Committee, from the National Police Agency on the 7th, 105 police officers have died by suicide from 2018 to last year. By year, there were 16 in 2018, 20 in 2019, 24 in 2020, 24 in 2021, and 21 last year.
The causes of suicide (multiple responses allowed) showed that deterioration of mental health was the most common with 44 cases (26.5%). This was followed by family problems with 32 cases (19.3%), workplace issues with 30 cases (18.1%), economic problems with 26 cases (15.7%), others with 14 cases (8.4%), physical illness with 13 cases (7.8%), and relationship issues with 7 cases (4.2%).
Rep. Jeong pointed out, “The situation where dozens of police officers end their lives every year continues,” adding, “They are mentally weakened due to stress from various malicious complaints and lawsuits arising during their duties.”
In fact, nearly half of police officers have been found to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a result of the aftermath of incidents.
In a 2013 internal survey conducted by the Korea Management Association on the police network, out of 20,686 respondents, nearly half?8,968 (43.4%)?answered that they experienced mental distress due to the aftermath of incidents. Similarly, in a 2018 internal survey by the Institute for Police Policy Studies, 7,973 out of 21,229 respondents (37.6%) reported experiencing the same distress.
A police official explained, “Patrol station staff have to mediate conflicts and are constantly exposed to verbal and physical abuse on site, so stress is inevitable,” adding, “Police officers encountering death-related incidents for the first time often suffer from trauma.”
Despite this, programs such as counseling or suicide prevention education for police officers were found to be significantly lacking.
According to data on the “Status of Psychiatric Referrals for Users of the Police Officers’ Mental Health Promotion Program” submitted by the lawmaker’s office, only about 200 police officers received psychiatric treatment through this program each year.
Over approximately five years, the total number of users was about 1,228. Considering that as of July this year, there are about 131,000 police officers in the country, this is a very low figure, accounting for less than 1%.
Rep. Jeong emphasized, “The Commissioner General of the National Police Agency must promptly complete this year’s police welfare survey and prepare comprehensive measures including suicide prevention strategies.”
※ If you have difficult-to-talk-about concerns such as depression or know family or acquaintances facing such difficulties, you can receive 24-hour expert counseling through the Suicide Prevention Hotline ☎1393, Mental Health Counseling ☎1577-0199, Lifeline ☎1588-9191, Youth Hotline ☎1388, the youth mobile counseling app ‘Da Deureojul Gae,’ KakaoTalk, and other channels.
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