Gwangju Nam-gu Expands Beneficiaries of Customized Care Services

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Seon-gang] Nam-gu, Gwangju Metropolitan City (District Mayor Kim Byeong-nae) announced on the 24th that it will accept additional applicants to expand beneficiaries of the customized care service, which has been providing free periodic meal management, cleaning, and other household support services for the elderly since early this year due to the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic, as demand is expected to increase.

According to Nam-gu, the customized care service is provided in two forms: focused care and general care.

Focused care supports services such as meal management, cleaning, and companionship within a range of 16 to less than 40 hours per month, while general care provides temporary household support services for less than 16 hours per month.

Currently, it is estimated that about 1,360 elderly people in need of care within Nam-gu are using this service.

Eligibility for application includes basic livelihood security recipients, near-poverty class, and basic pension recipients aged 65 or older residing in the district, and applicants must not be receiving overlapping benefits similar to the customized care service.

Nam-gu plans to accept about 700 additional applicants, and application forms can be submitted to the local administrative welfare center of the applicant's residence.

The determination of service support targets will comprehensively review the applicant's social relationships, degree of difficulty in physical activities, cognitive decline, and depression, selecting elderly individuals who are judged to have significant difficulties in daily life as the focused care group, and others as the general care group.

The service is provided through life support workers employed by the customized care service implementing agencies.

For efficient provision of the customized care service, Nam-gu has divided its 16 neighborhoods into three zones and designated Nam-gu Senior Welfare Center, Gwangju Park Senior Welfare Center, and Bitgoeul Senior Health Town as implementing agencies for each zone.

For inquiries about the customized care service, detailed information can be obtained by contacting the Nam-gu Office Elderly Policy Division or the local administrative welfare center of the residence.

Additionally, to reduce stress and depression caused by COVID-19, a psychological quarantine program will be conducted from the 27th for elderly people receiving services at three facilities.

To this end, Nam-gu has invested an additional 9.5 million won in project funds to provide bean sprout kits, as well as support for making fans, exercise rubber bands, coloring book sets, and herbs at each facility.

A Nam-gu official said, “We will do our best to promote the project to provide customized care services to elderly people exhausted by COVID-19, eliminate blind spots in care, and help them overcome the summer healthily through psychological comfort.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.