Severe Shortage of Disaster Psychological Support Staff... Half Lack Expertise

Only 58% of Personnel Have Received Relevant Training
Job Training Completion Rate Remains at 60% in Honam and Gangwon
Jeon Jinsook: "We Must Improve Personnel Treatment and Resolve Recruitment Challenges"

Jin Jinsook, Member of the National Assembly.

It has been found that about half of the personnel in charge of disaster psychological support lack professional knowledge and have not completed relevant training.

According to data submitted by Democratic Party lawmaker Jeon Jinsook (Gwangju Buk-gu Eul) from the National Trauma Center on the 6th, the number of mental health professionals responsible for disaster psychological support at mental health welfare centers decreased from 540 in 2023 to 501 last year.

Among the total 501 personnel last year, only 293 (58.4%) had completed clinical psychology-related training.

After the Itaewon disaster, the Ministry of Health and Welfare added "disaster psychological support" to the duties of mental health welfare centers and designated at least two dedicated personnel per center to strengthen community-based disaster trauma response.

Accordingly, 526 disaster psychological support personnel should have been assigned to 263 mental health welfare centers last year, but only 501 were deployed. By region, there were 149 in the Seoul metropolitan area, 90 in Honam, 159 in Yeongnam, 33 in Gangwon, and 70 in Chungcheong.

There was also a shortage of mental health professionals with a certain level of clinical psychology knowledge.

Looking at the qualifications of designated disaster psychological support personnel, those with a certain level of clinical psychology knowledge and training accounted for only 56.4% (305 people) in 2023 and 58.4% (293 people) in 2024. The number of non-professional personnel increased from 192 in 2023 to 202 in 2024.

Disaster psychological support personnel are required to complete job training consisting of psychological first aid, trauma recovery programs, and standard manuals for disaster mental health crisis response. However, the job training completion rate was only 77% in 2023 and 80% last year.

There are also significant regional disparities in job training completion rates. In the Seoul metropolitan area, the rates were 94% in 2023 and 89% in 2024, but in Honam and Gangwon, they remained in the 60% range for two consecutive years.

Representative Jeon emphasized, "In light of this recent passenger plane disaster, we must focus on improving the quality of disaster response psychological support personnel and establishing a service system centered on disaster survivors," adding, "We must also quickly resolve chronic recruitment difficulties and frequent turnover by improving the treatment of mental health welfare center personnel, which is the root cause of quality issues."