Suicide is becoming a serious social problem in Korea.Looking at the statistics on causes of death by Statistics Korea, the number of deaths due to intentional self - harm, or suicide, has continued to increase from 5, 959 in 1996, 6, 444 in 2000, 11, 492 in 2004, and 12, 858 in 2008. Moreover, since 2005, Korea has ranked first in suicide rate among OECD countries.In particular, suicide among the elderly aged 65 and over is more serious in Korea.
According to the Central Suicide Prevention Center, the proportion of deaths by suicide among those aged 65 and over in 2015 was 28.4% of the total. This is a high figure, reaching 3.5 times that of the United States (16.6 per 100,000) and 2.3 times that of Japan (25.8 per 100,000). It is even more serious for the super-aged elderly. The suicide rate for those in their 60s, which was 36.9 per 100,000, rose vertically to 62.5 per 100,000 for those in their 70s, and is rising to 83.7 for those in their 80s. Therefore, the church needs to accurately grasp the problem of elderly suicide, which is particularly high in Korean society, and prepare countermeasures for elderly suicide. This is because the number of elderly people among the saints of the Korean church is also increasing today. In particular, looking at the figure below, it can be seen that the number of elderly suicides increased significantly especially when there was an economic crisis.
This shows that economic problems are particularly serious for elderly suicides. In an economic downturn like today, the church should take better care of the mental health of the elderly. Looking at the 'reasons why the elderly attempt suicide' in the 2014 Ministry of Health and Welfare statistics, various reasons appear. In particular, economic problems, health problems, psychological loneliness, and conflict appear as causes. This problem of elderly suicide may affect the damage to individual life and the quality of individual life, but the increase in elderly suicide brings destruction to the family and community, and further harms social integration. Multilateral efforts and countermeasures at the individual, our society, and national levels are urgently requested for the increasing elderly suicide. In addition, as the aging trend is distinct, many elderly people are active in the church. The church should pay attention so that these elderly people can spend their old age healthily mentally and spiritually, and also pay attention to the elderly suicide problem. In addition, I hope that various studies on the increasing elderly suicide problem in our society will be expanded and developed so that various countermeasures and plans can be applied to the prevention of elderly suicide.
Elderly Suicide Problem With the dazzling development of modern science and technology, the development of medical technology and medicine has brought about the prevention of human diseases as well as treatment and extension of average life expectancy, and it appeared that 1 out of 10 people in Korea is an elderly person aged 65 or older. The reason why the proportion of the elderly population has been increasing rapidly since 2010 is that baby boomers globally are entering old age.
Korean society officially entered the 'aged society' as of August 2017. It has been 17 years since it entered the 'aging society' in 2000. It is an analysis that it was earlier than 2018, which Statistics Korea predicted as the time of entry into the aged society through future population projections. According to the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, the resident registration population aged 65 and over as of the end of August 2017 was tallied at 7,250,728, recording 14.02% of the total population (51,753,820). This is the first time that the resident registration population aged 65 and over has exceeded 14.0%, and according to UN standards, Korea has now crossed the threshold of an 'aged society' (14% or more) and started running steadily toward a 'super-aged society' (20% or more). As such, our society is aging rapidly to the extent that it is hard to find a precedent in any other country in the world, and various elderly problems due to the increase in the elderly population are no longer recognized as individual and family problems but as social and national problems, and the necessity is also raised in various ways. In particular, by 2050, Korea is expected to become the world's No. 1 aged society country.
I believe that various factors act in a complex way for an elderly person who has reached the end of life to rush to end their life. For example, the loss of occupational role due to retirement threatens self-esteem, power and honor, and stability for the future as well as economic loss, and one naturally faces the death of a spouse due to aging, or social participation gradually decreases due to loss of physical and mental ability and chronic diseases due to aging and health weakness, leading to isolation, helplessness, and despair, and eventually taking one's own life. Such elderly suicide is a social problem that can no longer be overlooked, raising the need for social alternatives to suicide. In particular, suicide appearing among the elderly has increased rapidly over the past 10 years, showing a steep increase rate. The increase in the elderly population often causes many problems depending on retirement, death of a spouse, or various environments of individual elderly people, driving life in old age into crisis, and the trend is that elderly suicide is also increasing accordingly. As a result, the elderly suicide problem has reached a point where it is difficult to overlook anymore, and a bigger problem is considering that the "No. 1 cause of death for those in their 20s and 30s" is suicide, when preparing for when they become elderly, the elderly suicide problem cannot help but be serious and has reached a point where it should no longer be neglected.