Smoking in South Korea has similar rate with other developed countries in the OECD. Male smoking is the highest at 36.2% while female smoking by far the lowest at 4.3%.The South Korean government aims to take down smoking rate to the OECD average of 30% by 2020 by making the country that one of the world’s most strict place on smoking, using such as the price hike of cigarette, warning images on packs, campaign and advertising bans, financial incentives and medical help for stopping along with a strict smoking ban laws in all public places including cafes, bars, streets and restaurants since July 2013, with high fines.

Kali code project by mmct. 2017

While staying in Indonesia, we had a opportunity to visit Muh.ammadiyah Tobacco Control Center in order to why and how they help for smokers so in this blog I try to address one of Korean non-profit organization health care center.

Korean public health centre, seongnamdiary blog. 2017

Korean public health centre is public and non-profit organization for promoting health of local residents and preventing diseases also they try to manages residents’ wealth related to their health and it is operated by Korean government. Korean public health centre provides various services and all centre must operate smoking clinic and I try to focus on them in this blog post Government cover all price for the treaments which government assigns as a wealth care. In personal opinion, Korean medical insurance service is one of the most well-made care in the world.

Smoking clinic aims to take up stopping smoking rate and provide consultations and medicine in order to smokers can live healthy life.They normally provide the medical care and the mental consultations for 6month after patient registers their name to the clinic. When the patient visits the clinic, they need to make a registration card in detail such as their age, overall rate of daily smoking, experience of stopping smoking, time of exercise in a day and drink or not.

After writing on the registration card, the patient has to check their blood pressure and simple body check. After then the professional or  specialist begin consultations one to one.

the patient is also needed that checking carbon monoxide through simple device. After checking an urine examination, the patient can get a result of nicotine rate.

Ansan City hall blog, Lee hyo jin. 2017

In this stage, if someone who depend on high nicotine, they can use adjuvant smoking medicine like nicotine patch, nicotine gum and candy.

Except patch, the clinic provides massaging equipments to help blood circulation and relieve stress . Sometimes the specialist prescribes acupuncture by especial procedure along with adjuvant smoking medicine. While 2week to 6week, the patient has to visit the clinic three to four times and check their changed body condition. At this period if the patient is difficult to visit there, they can make the appointment with the doctor outside of place where they prefer to meet.  Also the clinic operates educational smoking center and offers lots of information through video and speech. The clinic send a message that encourage their stopping smoking every day and doctor call to them unawares to check their situation.

After pass 6month of the program, the clinic support mental consultation and text message. It has been very successful care service in Korea, has really high rate of stopping smoking at over 50% with long term strategy.

References

Lee, H. 2014 “South Korea seeks near-doubling of cigarette price – BBC News”,  bbc.com, Viewed viewed 15 February 2017,< http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-29154469>

James, T. 2010 “The Gender Politics of Smoking in South Korea: Part 1”,  Koreabridge, Viewed viewed 15 February 2017,< http://koreabridge.net/post/gender-politics-smoking-south-korea-part-1-james-turnbull>

Doi, I. 2017, “Health risks – Daily smokers – OECD Data”, oecd.org, Viewed viewed 15 February 2017, < https://data.oecd.org/healthrisk/daily-smokers.htm>

Image by Seongnam city hall. 2017, Viewed viewed 15 February 2017, <http://seongnamdiary.com/220919186480>,

Image by Hyundai blog. 2017, Viewed viewed 15 February 2017, < http://blog.hyundai.co.kr/TALK/Story/hyundai-money-cigarette.blg#.WKXEvxJ95Bw>

Image by naver blog. 2017,Viewed viewed 15 February 2017, <http://blog.naver.com/cityansan/220913975117>