An emergency duty pause system will be introduced to immediately stop duty and grant rest when psychologically high-risk public officials, such as police officers, firefighters, soldiers, and civil petition service officials, show warning signs of suicide or other risks. Plans will also be prepared to support psychological treatment for stress caused by verbal abuse heard during civil petition processing and for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) caused by fires and disasters.
The Ministry of Personnel Management reported a pan-government special occupational group and group suicide prevention plan to the Cabinet meeting on the 8th.
The special occupational group and group suicide prevention plan was divided into four areas—public officials; uniformed public officials such as police, firefighters, and soldiers; emotional laborers; and disaster victims—to prepare detailed measures.
First, when warning signs of suicide or other risks are detected for a public official, the government plans to establish an emergency duty pause system to immediately stop duty and grant rest.
If repetitive or unusual civil petitions arise, a dedicated system will be established in which the institution, not the individual public official, is responsible for responding. In addition, for civil petitions that include verbal abuse or sexual harassment, exceptions to civil petition processing will be expanded to allow for closure within the institution.
A full-cycle psychological support program—prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and recovery—will also be implemented for uniformed public officials, such as police, firefighters, and soldiers, who are frequently exposed to shocking incidents and dangers such as death scenes.
The Ministry of National Defense will improve counseling conditions for high-risk groups by expanding professional counselors for barracks life, and the Korean National Police Agency and the National Fire Agency will also conduct regular psychological tests for effective diagnosis and detection of risk.
A psychological support system will be established not only for public officials but also for emotional laborers exposed to customer verbal abuse or colleagues' suicides and for disaster victims who have suffered psychological harm from disasters.
Mid- and long-term psychological support measures for disaster victims will also be prepared. To identify potential high-risk groups after a disaster occurs, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety and the Ministry of Health and Welfare will standardize risk group assessment criteria and follow-up measures, and strengthen interagency disaster response cooperation systems to enhance the discovery of and connections to high-risk groups.
Choi Dongsuk of the Ministry of Personnel Management said, "By strengthening the state's responsibility for suicide prevention, we will continue to work closely with related ministries to protect the mental health of high-risk groups, including special occupational group public officials, emotional laborers, and disaster victims."