Irish early risers try to help get South Korea's suicide rate down
Seoul
's financial district was dark, a little chilly and mostly deserted. But on a plaza just inside the park stood a large group of adults, some of them accompanied by children and dogs, chatting and laughing as if they were at a party.
These were members of Seoul's Irish community and their friends and they were about to set off on a walk through the park, emerging into the neighbourhood nearby as dawn was breaking. Organised by the Irish Association of Korea, Solas is an annual event similar to Ireland's Darkness Into Light, which aims to highlight positive mental health and wellbeing.
'There is really strong scientific evidence that the single most important thing you can do if you are struggling with your mental health is to talk about it and to be open about it,' Ireland's ambassador to South Korea Michelle Winthrop told the crowd.
'We, as a society, in Ireland, in Korea, everywhere, just need to get a bit better at speaking up. We need to get a bit more comfortable at listening if somebody is expressing some concerns. And the most important thing, really is to beat the stigma. So we just keep repeating that message: it's okay not to be okay,' she said.
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South Korea has the fourth highest suicide rate in the world and the highest within the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). While the global suicide rate is declining, it has been rising in South Korea, with men twice as likely to take their own lives as women and with the highest rate among older people.
The overall suicide rate is 25 deaths per 100,000 people but among those in their 80s it is nearly 70 per 100,000 and nearly 50 for those in their 40s and 50s. But the biggest cause of concern is the rising number of young people taking their own lives, with the number of primary and secondary students who die by suicide each year doubling in less than a decade.
If one of the purposes of Solas is to raise awareness, the other is to raise money and this year's beneficiary was the Hospitaller Order of St John of God. Five St John of God brothers came from Ireland to establish the order in Korea in 1958, setting up a small clinic in Gwangju near the southern tip of the peninsula.
Their services have expanded since then to include two centres in Seoul and apart from general medicine, they offer psychiatric services, programmes for alcohol and other substance abuse, and various counselling services.
They offer counselling to families of people who have died by suicide, many of whom feel uncomfortable sharing the burden of their grief with friends and colleagues.
'This is one of the problems. It's not talked about openly. I suppose Ireland also, some years ago, it wasn't spoken about either. It's at that stage in Korea,' said Brother John Conway, a native of Greystones, Co Wicklow who moved to Korea with the St John of God order 42 years ago.
'The area of alcoholism is another. When I first came to Korea and we opened the very first alcohol treatment centre in Gwangju, we were almost told we were wasting our time. And then suddenly there was a huge interest in it, mainly due to Korean dramas that brought the problem out. And now it's all over the country, AA groups and everything. It's the same thing.'
The order's alcohol treatment centres in Korea are based on the model of their hospital in Stillorgan but they adapt their services to take account of local sensibilities. The psychiatric hospital in Korea is called a Centre for Living and the nursing staff, who don't wear uniforms, refer to the patients as guests and never address them by their first names.
Nana Kim, one of the Koreans on the Solas walk, was part of a group from the Seoul Gaels, the city's GAA club where she is an enthusiastic footballer. She said that Korea's competitive culture, where young people are constantly judging and comparing themselves to one another, often compounded mental health issues.
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'Ten years ago, people used to think that mental health is a kind of disease. So if you saw a counsellor you wouldn't tell anyone. But it's a more common thing now and they talk about it in the media too,' she said.
'So it's getting better, but I think we still need more be open for those kind of things. It's like everyone is thinking, I have to be happy. But you don't. You can't be happy every day.'
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