‘Gwanak Dolbom SOS Center’ Expands from 4 Major Services to 10 Major Services

Provision of 4,370 Care Services Including Temporary Home Care, Meal Provision, and Information Counseling Until February... Seoul Selects Up to 10 Districts for Resident-Led Welfare Community Integrated Operation Pilot Project, Plans Citywide Expansion

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jong-il] Gwanak-gu (Mayor Park Jun-hee) is expanding and operating the customized services of the 'Care SOS Center,' which has been playing a significant role in resolving blind spots in care within the region, from the existing 4 major services to 10 major services.

In August last year, to address care blind spots caused by the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic, the district office installed 'Care SOS Centers' in all 21 neighborhoods including the district office itself, establishing and operating an efficient work system utilizing care managers, with full implementation starting this July.

In particular, to ensure the early settlement of the 'Care SOS Center' project, fixed-term workers were assigned to all neighborhoods, responding to urgent care demands even amid the prolonged COVID-19 situation, and providing prompt care services, which received great support from residents.

Through this, customized services such as ▲temporary home care ▲short-term facility use ▲meal provision ▲information counseling services were supported for residents in urgent need of care, providing a total of 4,370 services by the end of February.

Starting from March this year, services such as ▲accompaniment support ▲residential convenience ▲health support ▲well-being checks will be expanded and provided, and during the first half of the year, two additional services, ▲disinfection and cleaning ▲laundry services, will be newly added to complete the 10 major care services.

Additionally, from May, a distinctive project will be promoted to distribute health exercises through care managers to alleviate depression and improve physical strength for residents suffering from COVID blues.

Elderly, disabled, and middle-aged residents (50 years and older) in need of care can apply for care services through their neighborhood community centers or the district office's 'Care SOS Center.' Service costs will be fully covered if the income level is below 85% of the median income (temporarily up to 100% until June 30).

Meanwhile, Gwanak-gu was the only district among Seoul's autonomous districts to have the largest number of 10 neighborhoods selected for the pilot project of integrated operation of welfare communities for efficient resident-led discovery and support of vulnerable households.

Accordingly, similar and overlapping welfare community projects are integrated to operate two communities: ▲Hope Discovery Team (discovery, reporting) and ▲Neighbor Watchers (support, monitoring), linked and promoted with existing local social security councils, resident network formation projects (prevention of solitary deaths), and Our Neighborhood Care Team projects.

To accelerate the integrated operation and linked project promotion of welfare communities, the district plans to secure its own budget for the 11 neighborhoods not participating in the pilot project and implement the project in all 21 neighborhoods.

Park Jun-hee, Mayor of Gwanak-gu, said, “We will establish a multifaceted customized care system to respond to the urgent care needs of vulnerable groups who are having a harder time due to the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic and provide prompt services. We will continue to build a dense and proactive local care safety net to reach out to neighbors in welfare blind spots and lead the realization of a happy Gwanak welfare.”

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