The surge in women in their 20s’ choice of theatre companies appears in various forms. First of all, depression.

According to the National Health Insurance Service, 671,425 women (66%) visited the hospital last year due to mood disorders, twice as many as 345,302 (34%) men, and 16.8% (179,987) in their 20s by age group.


According to data from the National Emergency Medical Information Network, a total of 36,336 cases of self-harm and suicide attempts were reported in 2019, of which 5,671 were women in their 20s, accounting for 15.6%, overwhelming different age groups for men and women.

The government is paying attention to operating a suicide prevention policy committee to prevent suicide and significantly increasing related budgets and manpower, but critics point out that support for young people is still insufficient.


Professor Baek Jong-woo said, “In order to reduce suicide, access to socio-economic support or treatment must be improved, but this part has not been done in detail,” adding, “For example, women in their teens and 20s prefer social network service (SNS) counseling, but there is little investment in this system.”


Professor Baek pointed out, “In the case of young people with weak economic power, treatment costs for mental problems such as depression are also a big burden,” adding, “In Japan, outpatient medical expenses for mental problems such as depression are refunded according to income level, but this is not the case.”


Professor Park Sun-young said, “The government and local governments are carrying out various projects related to mental health to reduce suicide in their own way, but there are many other difficulties related to welfare and medical care, so there will not be enough resources or manpower.”


Professor Park said, “Korea still has low social awareness of issues related to mental health, so preventive access is not high,” and added, “We need to secure experience or expertise to prevent suicide in advance.”