Workplace Suicide Prevention and Mental Health Education Guide

Workplace suicide prevention and mental health training is designed to prevent employees' difficulties from being viewed solely as personal issues, instead enabling the early detection of warning signs within the organization and safely connecting them to support. This article summarizes the target audience, procedures, practical checklists, and crisis response standards necessary for HR personnel, safety and health managers, and supervisors.

 

Key Summary

item	Items to check by the person in charge
Educational purposes	Improving respect for life, understanding mental health, detecting warning signs, connecting with specialized institutions
Main targets	HR, Safety and health, managers, team leaders, employees
Education structure	Awareness Training + Life Guardian Training + Guide to Internal Referral Procedures
Key Procedures	Identify danger signals → Listen → Ensure safety → Share with internal personnel → Connect with specialized agencies
crisis situation	If you suspect imminent danger, do not make a decision on your own; immediately call 109, 112, or 119.

 

Suicide prevention education consists of awareness-raising education covering the importance of respecting life, self-understanding and care, and asking for help, and life-saving education covering suicide risk factors, warning signs, and suicide crisis response skills.

 

What is Workplace Suicide Prevention and Mental Health Education?

Workplace suicide prevention and mental health training is not intended to diagnose or counsel employees. The purpose of the training is to establish response standards within the organization so that verbal, behavioral, and situational signals from members are not missed, and so that managers do not attempt to resolve issues alone.

 

The Korea Life Respect Hope Foundation's Life Guardian training is explained based on the flow of 'seeing, listening, and speaking.' It involves observing danger signals, listening to determine if there is actual difficulty, reducing the risk, and then referring the case to a professional.

 

In the workplace, one more thing is required: determining “who within the organization will intervene, when, and to what extent.” Since mental health issues are closely related to an individual's private life, procedures and principles of confidentiality must be provided to prevent excessive scrutiny, rumors, or negative evaluations.

 

Who needs to check?

Workplace suicide prevention and mental health training is necessary for all employees, but the following personnel in charge must prioritize understanding the training content.

 

Target	Reasons why it is necessary
HR manager	Procedures for counseling, leave of absence, return to work, and referral to external agencies must be designed.
Safety and Health Officer	Risk factors such as job stress, long working hours, and shift work must be managed.
Manager/Team Leader	Employees are most likely to see changes and warning signs first.
Management Support Manager	Crisis response, personal information protection, and communication standards need to be established.
EAP Introduction Reviewer	There is a need to integrate the operation of counseling, training, organizational diagnosis, and crisis response.

 

Suicide prevention education is mandated for public institutions, elderly welfare facilities, social welfare facilities, schools, and hospital-level medical institutions, while workplaces with 30 or more regular employees are included in the educational effort targets. Therefore, rather than assuming that "the same statutory mandatory education applies to all workplaces," it is safer for general companies to review education from the perspective of organizational risk management and employee protection systems.

 

Procedures that the person in charge must check

When you discover warning signs of mental health risks in the workplace, you must follow procedures rather than approaching them with good intentions alone.

1. Record danger signals.
   Check if there is an increase in absenteeism, drastic changes in work attitude, extreme lethargy, severed relationships, or recurring expressions such as “I want to disappear.”
   
   
2. We converse without judging or interrogating.
   “ Instead of asking "Why?", it is better to ask about their current status, such as "You seem to be having a hard time lately, so I want to check if you are safe."
   
   
3. Check for imminent danger.
   If you determine that self-harm or suicide is imminent, do not attempt to persuade the person on your own; instead, you must immediately request help from 109, 112, or 119. The Ministry of Health and Welfare advises that the suicide prevention hotline 109 performs suicide prevention functions, including counseling, emergency dispatch, and referral to mental health welfare centers.
   
   
4. Minimizes the scope of internal sharing.
   Employee mental health information is sensitive. It must be shared only with the necessary personnel and managed to prevent it from leading to performance reviews, rumors, or disadvantages.
   
   
5. Connects to professional support.
   We guide employees to support channels tailored to their needs, such as in-house counseling, EAP, local mental health welfare centers, medical institutions, and suicide prevention hotlines.

Practical Checklist

item	check
Our organization has a designated person in charge of mental health crisis response.	□
We trained managers on examples of danger signals and communication methods.	□
Employees can request assistance anonymously or under a confidentiality guarantee.	□
There is a list of external organizations and internal personnel to contact in a crisis situation.	□
There are response standards for emergency situations, such as risks of suicide, self-harm, and violence.	□
Counseling content and performance evaluation information are managed separately.	□
Job stress factors such as long working hours, night work, shift work, and excessive workload are examined together.	□
After training, a response manual or FAQ for administrators is provided.	□
Teams experiencing recurring difficulties consider not only individual counseling but also organizational diagnosis.	□

 

The Occupational Safety and Health Act stipulates that employers must maintain and promote the safety and health of workers by creating a work environment and improving working conditions that can reduce physical fatigue and mental stress. Furthermore, Article 669 of the Rules on Occupational Safety and Health Standards suggests measures such as evaluating job stress factors, improving working hours, referencing counseling materials, and implementing health promotion programs for high-stress work, including long working hours and shift work such as night work.

 

parts that are often missed

first Suicide prevention training is often limited to the level of saying, "If you are having a hard time, please seek counseling." However, for employees to actually request help, they need to know the specifics regarding confidentiality, how to use the service, counseling costs, and availability during working hours.

 

Second There are instances where managers attempt to act as counselors. However, managers are not therapists or counselors, but connectors. They should listen to the employee's story, but if the risk appears high, they must immediately connect them with a specialized agency or the relevant internal contact.

 

third There are cases where return-to-work procedures are missed following a crisis response. If leave of absence, sick leave, work adjustments, return-to-work interviews, and preventative measures are not designed together, both the employee and the team may become unstable again.

 

Fourth There are cases where organizational problems are masked by individual counseling alone. If burnout, anxiety, turnover, and conflict are recurring in a specific department, workload, leadership, organizational culture, and job stress factors must be examined together with individual mental health support.

 

EAP Situations where it is needed

EAP It is not merely a system that provides individual employee counseling, but can be utilized as an organizational support framework that connects education, organizational diagnosis, manager coaching, crisis response, and return-to-work support. The Ministry of Health and Welfare's mental health policy innovation plan also mentioned strengthening workplace mental health support and activating EAP as key tasks.

You may consider implementing EAP in the following situations.

 

situation	EAP Directions for use
Employees want counseling but find it difficult to speak up internally.	Providing external consultation channels
Managers have difficulty responding to employees in crisis	Providing manager training and coaching
Recurring burnout and conflict in a specific team	Organizational Diagnosis and Group Intervention
Shocking incidents such as accidents, deaths, verbal abuse, or assault occurred	Crisis Intervention and Psychological Emergency Support
Management of employees returning from leave is necessary.	Return interviews, job adjustments, and reintegration support

 

Related Posts

• Suicide Risk Signal HR Crisis Response Standards Checklist
• What should I do if I hear remarks implying self-harm?
• Information and Checklist to Prepare Before Inquiring about Crisis Counseling

Frequently Asked Questions

Q1. Is workplace suicide prevention and mental health training a legally mandated training for all companies?

It is difficult to conclude that this is a legally mandated training that applies equally to all general businesses. However, workplaces with 30 or more regular employees are designated as requiring training efforts, while public institutions, social welfare facilities, schools, and hospital-level medical institutions are designated as subject to mandatory training. Since applicability may vary depending on the type of workplace, it is advisable to check the official criteria for eligibility.

 

Q2. Can a manager directly ask an employee if they have suicidal thoughts?

If danger signals are clear, it may be necessary to have a conversation confirming safety rather than beating around the bush. However, since a manager is not a counselor or therapist, they should not make judgments on their own. If danger is suspected, you must immediately connect with a professional agency, EAP, 109, 112, or 119.

 

Q3. What content should the educational materials include?

Basically, it is recommended to include awareness of respect for life, self-care, methods for seeking help, suicide risk factors and warning signs, crisis response skills, and procedures for referral to specialized agencies. The Korea Life Respect Hope Foundation's suicide prevention education program is divided into awareness improvement and life guardian training, and education for the general adult population is also provided.

 

Q4. Can the company know the details of the consultation?

EAP When operating external counseling services, you must clearly explain the principles of confidentiality so that employees can use the service with peace of mind. However, if there is an immediate risk to the life and safety of oneself or others, intervention to ensure safety may be necessary.

 

Q5. It is just a problem with one employee, so do we really need to conduct organizational-level training?

Mental health crises can originate from individual difficulties, but they can also be linked to organizational factors such as long working hours, excessive workloads, organizational conflict, harassment, and isolation. Therefore, it is advisable to implement both individual support and organizational-level preventive education.

 

Next step

If you need to design a system for employee mental health, manager response, and crisis response together at the organizational level Nudge EAP Implementation Consultation Review the operating methods that suit our organization through this.

 

👉 Nudge EAP Introduction counsel Shortcut →

 

source

• Korea Life Respect and Hope Foundation, Suicide Prevention Education Guide
• Korea Life Respect and Hope Foundation, Apply for Online Suicide Prevention Education
• Ministry of Health and Welfare Announces Integrated Operation of Suicide Prevention Hotline 109
• Information on the Health and Welfare Counseling Center and Suicide Prevention Hotline 109
• Republic of Korea Policy Briefing, Briefing on Mental Health Policy Innovation Measures
• National Assembly Library National Strategy Portal, Mental Health Policy Innovation Plan
• National Law Information Center, Article 5 of the Occupational Safety and Health Act
• National Law Information Center, Article 669 of the Rules on Industrial Safety and Health Standards

This content is intended for general informational purposes. Specific legal, labor, medical, and psychological counseling matters may vary depending on the situation and may require review by a relevant expert.