Gwangjin-gu Selected as an Excellent Institution for 'Creating a Smoke-Free Environment and Smoking Cessation Counseling'

Selected as an Excellent Institution and Awarded the Grand Prize, Receiving the Minister of Health and Welfare Commendation

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jong-il] The Gwangjin District Health Center (District Mayor Kim Seon-gap) received the Minister of Health and Welfare Commendation by being selected as an ‘Excellent Institution’ and winning the ‘Grand Prize’ for outstanding smoking cessation counseling cases at the ‘2020 Community Smoking Cessation Environment Creation and Smoking Cessation Counseling Best Practices Evaluation’ awards ceremony held at the Koreana Hotel in Seoul on the 29th of last month.

This evaluation, jointly hosted by the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Korea Health Promotion Institute, was organized to assess the achievement of goals in smoking cessation project plans and the implementation performance of local governments across city, county, and district health centers nationwide.

The district was selected as an excellent institution by promoting smoking cessation support projects aligned with the new normal caused by COVID-19, such as conducting non-face-to-face smoking cessation clinics through a self-developed smoking cessation mobile app.

In particular, it received high praise for being the first nationwide to add a ‘smoking-related fine reduction application’ function to the app, establishing a non-face-to-face one-stop service for fine applications.

Additionally, it operated the youth smoking cessation program ‘Gwangjin, Aja!’, which encourages youth participation, winning the grand prize for outstanding smoking cessation counseling cases.

The ‘Gwangjin, Aja!’ program was prepared to address blind spots for smoking youth due to school attendance suspension caused by COVID-19, and along with one-on-one counseling, various activities such as boxing classes and cultural experiences were conducted, receiving positive responses.

Prior to this, the Gwangjin District Health Center has achieved excellent results in various fields, winning the grand prize at the ‘5th Korea Healthy City Awards’ contest and the grand prize for ‘2020 Community Alcohol Harm Prevention Best Practices’.

Kim Seon-gap, Mayor of Gwangjin District, said, “We are striving to establish a healthy smoking cessation environment in the community by promoting non-face-to-face smoking cessation clinics that can be conducted even amid the COVID-19 crisis,” adding, “Along with this, we are implementing various policies to create a ‘Healthy Gwangjin,’ including operating smoking cessation programs that encourage voluntary participation to strengthen youth’s own motivation to quit smoking.”

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