82% of Patients from Closed South Korean Psychiatric Hospital Returned to Psychiatric Facilities

Nearly all patients from Ulsan’s Bangu-dae Hospital ended up in institutions after the psychiatric facility closed, with 82% transferred to or readmitted to psychiatric hospitals.

Data submitted by the Ulju County Public Health Center to the office of lawmaker Kim Ye-ji showed that, as of Aug. 5, 143 of the hospital’s 184 patients had been transferred directly to psychiatric facilities. Another eight were readmitted after discharge. Sixteen went to nursing hospitals, 11 entered residential facilities and only six moved to private homes. Including nursing hospitals and residential facilities, 178 patients, or 96.7%, remained in hospitals or institutions.

“

If communication with guardians, rather than direct communication with the people concerned and confirmation of their wishes, became decisive in transfer and discharge decisions, procedural assistance could only become meaningless.

Patients with developmental disabilities made up 108 of the original group. Among the 151 patients in psychiatric hospitals after the transfers, 91 had intellectual or autism disabilities, accounting for 60%. The proportion therefore rose by two percentage points. Only two of the patients who went home had intellectual disabilities.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare had formed a public-private support group to assist with the transfers. But records show that only four patients received procedural assistance, and most interviews involved guardians rather than the patients themselves. Procedural assistance is intended to help communicate with the person concerned and establish their wishes.

“

Patients needed real opportunities to live in the community with the necessary housing and care, rather than simply being asked whether they wanted independence.

The ministry had also asked Ulju County’s Mental Health Review Committee to assess the suitability of receiving hospitals and the need for continued hospitalization. No separate committee meeting took place before the transfers and discharges were completed. A committee meeting held the previous day instead extended the hospitalization of 65 patients in psychiatric hospitals across Ulsan, including Bangu-dae patients whose admission periods had expired.

Kim said patients who had spent years in hospitals or facilities needed real opportunities to live in the community, supported by housing and care, rather than a simple question about whether they wanted independence. A civic group participant who worked on the procedure said the support group became a formality designed to provide minimal protection for the authorities. Bangu-dae closed after seven patients, including four people with intellectual disabilities, died there over five years. The article also says a 45-year-old woman who died in 2023 had been assaulted by another patient shortly before her death.

“

The Bangu-dae Hospital Patient Transfer Support Group ended up being formed merely as a minimal defense for the authorities.