A developmental overview of mental health system in Korea.

This paper provides an overview of mental health services in Korea. In order to understand the historical background of mental health service system development in Korea, this paper first provides a brief description on the history of the Korean mental health services, including a notably recent transition of mental health policy from long-term hospitalization to community-based mental health services. This paper then summarizes the characteristics of contemporary Korean mental health services in terms of its service delivery system, types of programs, characteristics of psychiatric service consumers, characteristics of service providers, and trends in the number of beds in Korea compared to those of Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries. In addition, discussions for future directions of the Korean mental health services are provided.