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[wylies99]

Teachers advised on teen suicide
http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/



School teachers are to learn how to help keep students from becoming suicidal amid a series of celebrity suicide cases, which, many people worried, might induce copycats.

Some 142 students of elementary, middle and high schools in Korea took their own lives last year, up 42 percent from 2003.

Experts have noted that recent celebrity suicides, such as actress Choi Jin-sil`s, could have a negative impact on emotionally sensitive teenagers.

Based on such concerns, the Education Ministry provided a special session for about 200 teachers yesterday in Hanyang University in Seoul.

The lectures were aimed at advising teachers how to help students understand what suicide means and how to deal with difficult situations.

Yesterday`s lecturers included Lee Gwang-ja, Ewha Womans University professor of nursing and vice president of the Korean Association for Suicide Prevention, and Ahn Dong-hyun, professor of neuropsychiatry at Hanyang College of Medicine.

They spoke about the reasons behind most suicides, and how to prevent and deal with it in schools.

Those who attended yesterday`s session will go back to their regions to train other teachers and create their own programs for suicide prevention, the ministry said.

"Local education authorities have conducted several instructive programs on suicide prevention in the past, but it is the first time the Education Ministry is starting one," said a ministry official.

"The focus of the program will be on how to guide and deal with students who are in a critical condition and showing signs of a suicidal state."

Suicide prevention has become a frequently discussed topic after several TV celebrities killed themselves.

The district of Seocho in southern Seoul started a free counseling service on Saturday for people who may be suffering from depression.

Residents of Seocho can talk to psychiatrists free of charge every Saturday at the district health clinic between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m., the ward office said.

Religious circles have also launched campaigns, prayer meetings and books on suicide prevention.

Ironically, more introspective books on death have been published lately. A book or two on the subject of death was published each week from late August through the first week of October.

Thanatology, the academic and often scientific study of death among humans, has also become popular in the local publishing sector.

Oh Jin-tak, philosophy professor at Hallym University and one of the few thanatologists in Korea, has been giving lectures to keep people from misunderstanding life and death.

"Anyone who knows what death means cannot take his own life," he said.

Oh, who has studied the topic for over 10 years and set up a thanatology research center, is involved especially in lectures and instructive programs to help soldiers.

By Kim So-hyun

([email protected])

[Countrygirl]

It's strange but suicide does seem to be contagious. I remember in my small town, one highschool girl killed herself and soon every highschool had someone who killed themselves or tried.

I was told that approximately 35 Koreans kill themselves each day. Not sure on the math on that one, but the OhMyNews reports that Korea has the highest suicide rate in the OECD with 26 deaths per 100,000 Koreans. That's too high.

http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?at_code=390145

[prideofidaho]

This should be a good step forward. I'm afraid that with all else in the world it's a simple matter of not being able to recognise the symptoms or signs of depression. It's still a massive taboo globally, but even more so among children. They're meant to be careless and joyful, and as adults it's so easy to glorify childhood and forget how perceptive we were at that age.

I simple widespread campaign of just the signs of depression or suicide could make a huge difference, methinks.