Gwangju Dong-gu, Jiwon 1-dong Baekjo Apartment Designated as 'Dementia Safe Village Happy Apartment'

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Seon-gang] Dong-gu, Gwangju Metropolitan City (Mayor Im Taek) announced on the 24th that Baekjo Apartment in Jiwon 1-dong, a small-scale multi-family housing, has been newly designated as a ‘Dementia Safe Village Happy Apartment.’

With this, the number of ‘Dementia Safe Village Happy Apartments’ in the district has increased to four, including the existing Daemyeong Apartment (Gyerim 2-dong), Shinyang Mansion (Sansu 2-dong), and Jina Highville (Jisan 2-dong).

Among the five autonomous districts of Gwangju, Dong-gu is the only one to establish ‘Dementia Safe Village Happy Apartments,’ taking the lead in dementia prevention and awareness improvement in the local community. By creating Happy Apartments with cognitive enhancement designs within the dementia safe village, it helps increase residents’ social activities and improve cognitive functions.

Earlier, in September, Dong-gu held a meeting with the Baekjo Apartment management committee, conducting a project briefing and dementia prevention education. Additionally, through a process of gathering residents’ opinions, a customized environment convenient for residents was created with cognitive enhancement designs directly decided by the residents.

The cognitive enhancement design of the Happy Apartment includes ▲ installation of memory entrances and memory mailboxes for cognitive reinforcement ▲ wall information boards and health stairs providing dementia-related information ▲ landscape lighting, health information boards, and game boards for dementia awareness improvement ▲ creation of shared gardens for neighbor communication ▲ distribution of brain health learning materials for dementia prevention, which have received great responses from residents.

Dong-gu expects that through the creation of Happy Apartment environments within the dementia safe village, residents will develop correct awareness and understanding of dementia, and that the activation of shared space use will lead to increased social activities and improved cognitive functions among residents.

Mayor Im Taek of Dong-gu said, “I hope that the designation of Happy Apartments will serve as an opportunity for local residents to improve their awareness of dementia,” and added, “We will continue various dementia prevention projects so that dementia patients and their families can live joyfully and happily with the warm gaze of neighbors.”

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