Korean society faces a new mental health crisis. Last year, South Korea's suicide rate was 23.2 per 100,000 people, more than double the average of member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), ranking first among OECD members. The fact that both young people and the elderly show the highest suicide rates in the OECD demonstrates that our society is in the grip of a mental health crisis spanning the entire life cycle.
Mental health problems cannot be solved by medication alone. Depression and anxiety, loneliness and isolation are problems of the brain, but they are also problems of relationships and the environment. While appropriate treatment must be provided to those who need medication, social prescriptions that connect people to people and people to nature must also be carried out.
Over the past decade or so, the Seoul Metropolitan Government has developed urban green spaces beyond mere scenery into public assets that enhance citizens' health and quality of life through its garden city policy. The Seoul International Garden Show, held at Ttukseom Hangang Park in 2024 and Boramae Park last year, takes place this year at Seoul Forest, the Seongsu-dong area and along the Han River, growing into a representative urban garden festival that draws more than 10 million visitors.
A study targeting visitors last year confirmed that simply spending more than 30 minutes in a garden produced a significant improvement in mental health. Participants' negative emotions decreased by an average of 23.6 percent, and salivary cortisol, a stress hormone, fell by 14.8 percent. In particular, the higher a person's stress level, the greater the reduction in negative emotions. This shows that gardens are a health resource that relieves stress and anxiety and aids emotional recovery, and that they can serve as a preventive social prescription tool for citizens in states of mild depression or social isolation.
Seoul already possesses world-class parks and gardens, the Han River and trails. Seoul's garden prescription policy also aligns with global trends. Major developed countries such as the United Kingdom, the United States, New Zealand and Japan are using nature not merely as an environment but as a social asset that promotes health.
What is needed now is to actively utilize these resources in citizen health policy. A new approach that links garden city policy with mental health policy is needed. Joint walks, gardening activities and community garden programs should be connected to citizen health policy, and their effects should be verified through clinical research and empirical projects to accumulate medical evidence. Furthermore, by proving social and economic effects such as improved mental health, reduced social isolation and lower medical costs, gardens should be used as a social prescription tool. To this end, a sustainable garden prescription system must be established, and a convergence policy model that links related policies and budgets must be prepared.
Mental health problems are likely to become more serious in the future. Not all problems can be solved by medical staff and medication alone. The problems of loneliness and isolation created by society must be solved by society together. The answer is, surprisingly, close at hand. It is the park in front of one's home, the neighborhood garden and the walking path traveled together.
For Seoul to leap beyond a world-class garden city to a world-class health city, it must now move from a "city that creates gardens" to a "city that prescribes gardens." Garden prescription is the most realistic and sustainable social prescription that Seoul, a super-aged society, can choose, and it can become a new public health policy that protects citizens' mental health. The "2026 Seoul International Garden Show" will be an important starting point for Seoul's evolution beyond a garden city into a health city.
