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H.K. Kim and D.H. Shin. (2015) Domestic and Foreign Case Studies on ICT Convergence for Mental Health Improvement and Suicide Prevention. Journal of the Korea Contents Association 15(5).
Depression and mental illness across all age groups, and steady increasing in suicide rate are our major social problems which cause dramatically decreasing government competitiveness. While Korean government has implemented various policies to improve mental health and prevent suicide, it faces revealing issues in progress on implementation and referral management systems. The current research examined domestic and foreign cases to understand the actual status and directivity of ICT convergence plan in terms of mental health. The United States and the United Kingdom have provided convergent ICT service, tele-psychiatric care to senior citizens in rural areas, children and adolescents, socially disadvantaged class, etc. In Korea, emergency-notice devices are installed to prevent suicide for single elderly people, and diverse mobile health devices are developing to cure depression and Alzheimer's disease. ICT convergent mental health care service is needed to save socioeconomic costs and realize universal welfare for an aging society. Social consensus on sharply conflict issues, medical law and medical devices about tele-psychiatry service, effectiveness studies on users’ unique psychiatric characteristics by life cycle, and region-specialized strategies for the least densely populated rural regions with lower access to medical care should be considered.
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