Nowon-gu, Seoul City Visiting Health Care Project Awarded Excellent Institution for 2 Consecutive Years

Establishment of Rapid Response System for Visiting Nurses and Proactive Elderly Health Management Using ICT... Leading Visiting Health Care Project in the COVID-19 Era Wins Grand Prize, Following Last Year's Excellence Award for Two Consecutive Years

[Asia Economy Reporter Jongil Park] Nowon-gu (District Mayor Oh Seung-rok) was selected as the Best District in the ‘2020 Seoul City Visiting Health Care Project’ for the second consecutive year, following last year's award as an excellent district.

This excellent institution selection evaluates and shares the achievements of the visiting health care projects of Seoul's autonomous districts over the year and is held annually under the auspices of Seoul City.

The highly evaluated aspects in this award were the video health care system and the response to senior citizens' COVID-19 health management.

The district introduced a video health care system using dedicated video call mobile phones in every neighborhood, connecting visiting nurses and senior citizens on a one-to-one basis.

As a result, it became possible to actively manage health even in situations where face-to-face health care was difficult, by conducting COVID-19 prevention education, comprehensively monitoring health status, and performing interactive exercises through the screen.

The proactive and flexible response to senior citizens' health management during the COVID-19 situation was also highly praised in this award. According to the COVID-19 phase adjustments, ‘small group healing walks’ were operated targeting reclusive seniors to prevent COVID blues and promote physical activity that had been reduced.

In February this year, Nowon-gu recruited 16 full-time visiting nurses, placing the largest number of visiting nurses per neighborhood among Seoul's autonomous districts.

The deployed nurses responded comprehensively to COVID-19 by performing neighborhood-level COVID prevention public duties and being assigned to the COVID call center, providing professional and prompt consultation and education. They focused on intensive phone monitoring and home visits when necessary, especially for vulnerable groups such as elderly living alone and high-risk chronic disease patients, to prevent and contain the spread of COVID-19.

Additionally, mental health education, art therapy, and healing programs at the local forest healing center were operated for nurses exhausted from the prolonged COVID-19 response, continuously striving for psychological quarantine of the response personnel.

Furthermore, to ensure sustainable health management for seniors with low medical accessibility, the district will officially implement from this month the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s pilot project ‘AI (Artificial Intelligence) and IoT (Internet of Things)-based Senior Health Management Service,’ which provides non-face-to-face health management services using ICT (Information and Communication Technology).

This pilot project targets seniors aged 65 and over in the region, linking mobile and smart devices for health management. Visiting nurses and other public health center professionals monitor the health status of participants and provide continuous health management for more than six months, enabling active and efficient senior health care even when face-to-face contact is difficult.

Oh Seung-rok, Mayor of Nowon-gu, said, “In an era where super-aged population and COVID coexist, we are making multifaceted efforts for the health management of seniors, which is more important than anything else. In particular, we are proactively introducing senior health management measures using ICT technology and will do our best to establish a continuous and leading senior health management model in preparation for the post-COVID era.”

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