Gwangju City Opens Nation's First Integrated Care Center for Severely Disabled Developmental Disorder Patients

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Mayor Lee Yong-seop: "We Will Realize a Happy and Warm Gwangju Community for All Citizens"

On the morning of the 24th, Lee Yong-seop, Mayor of Gwangju Metropolitan City, attended the opening ceremony of the Integrated Care Center for Severely Disabled Developmental Disorder at the Gwangju Metropolitan City Disabled Welfare Center and participated in the plaque unveiling with the attendees. Photo by Gwangju Metropolitan City

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters, Reporter Park Seon-gang] The ‘Integrated Care Center for the Most Severe Developmental Disabilities’ opened its doors for the first time nationwide in Gwangju on the 24th.

On this day, Gwangju Metropolitan City held the opening ceremony of the Integrated Care Center for the Most Severe Developmental Disabilities at the city’s Comprehensive Welfare Center for the Disabled, attended by Mayor Lee Yong-seop, City Council Chairman Kim Yong-jip, Buk-gu District Mayor Moon In, and Kim Yoo-seon, representative of the Parents’ Association for the Disabled.

At the event, Kim Yoo-seon, representative of the Parents’ Association for the Disabled, read a letter of gratitude written on behalf of people with developmental disabilities and their families and handed it to Mayor Lee Yong-seop of Gwangju.

In the letter, Representative Kim said, “In a world where efficiency is regarded as the highest value, I am grateful that the mayor’s administrative philosophy, which aims to place the most difficult lives at the center of society, laid the foundation for the establishment of the ‘Integrated Care Support System for the Most Severe Developmental Disabilities.’ I also thank you for listening to our stories from the field during the implementation of this project.”

She added, “We have long cried out to the world to let us live, pleading that we no longer want to die like this. Even in the face of the unexpected death of a colleague, we had no choice but to comfort each other and send the children left behind to facilities or psychiatric hospitals,” expressing her anguish.

She continued, “To break this cycle of despair, a minimum safety net must be provided so that people with developmental disabilities can live in the community. We earnestly hoped for just a little help to become better parents, and Gwangju City did not turn a blind eye but created the nation’s first ‘Integrated Care Support System for the Most Severe Developmental Disabilities,’ giving new hope to us parents,” she added.

She said, “I welcome this project as the first step toward enabling people with developmental disabilities, who have lived without receiving humane treatment despite being dignified human beings, to live together in the community like non-disabled people.”

In response, Mayor Lee Yong-seop said, “Being born with a disability is no one’s fault, and it is not a burden that only the individual and their family must bear.” He added, “There must no longer be heartbreaking cases where precious family members and neighbors leave us after lonely battles against societal prejudice and discrimination.”

He pledged, “The Integrated Care Center for the Most Severe Developmental Disabilities will never close its doors, operating 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Through one-on-one personalized support, we will positively transform challenging behaviors and actively support residential living to improve independence. We will realize a warm Gwangju community where no one is marginalized or discriminated against, and all citizens are happy.”

The Integrated Care Center for the Most Severe Developmental Disabilities provides services through two locations: the city’s Comprehensive Welfare Center for the Disabled and the Seo-gu Welfare Center for the Disabled.

Each center is sized at 130㎡ and 270㎡ respectively, consisting of group activity rooms, individual activity rooms, and psychological stabilization rooms, supporting a total of eight people with the most severe developmental disabilities, four at each center.

Four support staff composed of special education teachers and social workers, along with two auxiliary personnel such as public service workers, analyze challenging behaviors of the most severe developmental disabilities and provide care by combining positive behavior support with behavior modification.

They participate in programs in the welfare center activity rooms from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on weekdays. After daytime activities, they move to supported housing where, from 5 p.m. to 9 a.m. the next day, two support staff and one auxiliary personnel assist with necessary aspects of independent living such as meal management.

Care support is also provided on weekends and holidays, and if desired by the person with developmental disabilities and their family, they can return home once a week or once a month.

The city selected 40 people on the 15th for the first phase of the program targeting 100 people with the most severe developmental disabilities who exhibit challenging behaviors or violent tendencies and are refused or maladapted to facility use, thus unable to receive care support outside their families. The selections included three for multi-support daytime activities, three males for supported housing, 14 for individual daytime activity support, and 20 for weekend and holiday care support. An additional 40 people will be recruited in the second phase next month.

Meanwhile, at the opening ceremony, Gwangju City signed a memorandum of understanding with Moving Trip Co., Ltd., a travel agency specializing in services for people with disabilities, to mutually cooperate on projects supporting rest and travel for people with developmental disabilities and their families, including the ‘Emergency Healing Program for Parents of People with Developmental Disabilities.’

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