Government to Pilot 'Integrated Elderly Care Service' Linking Health, Nursing, and Housing

Inauguration Ceremony for the Pilot Project on the Reform of the Elderly Care Delivery System

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] A new ‘Integrated Elderly Care Service’ that supports health care, nursing, lifestyle, and housing in an integrated manner will be pilot-operated in Hwaseong City and Chuncheon City.

On the 1st, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety and the Ministry of Health and Welfare announced that they held a launching ceremony for the 'Elderly Care Delivery System Reform Pilot Project' being promoted in Hwaseong City and Chuncheon City. To prevent the spread of COVID-19, only a minimal number of people attended the ceremony in person, while advisory groups and related organizations participated online. At the Chuncheon site, Yang Sung-il, 1st Vice Minister of the Ministry of Health and Welfare, and Lee Jae-su, Mayor of Chuncheon, attended, and at the Hwaseong site, Park Sung-ho, Director of Local Autonomy and Decentralization at the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, and Seo Cheol-mo, Mayor of Hwaseong, were present.

The ‘Elderly Care Delivery System Reform Pilot Project’ is a service that integrates elderly welfare services conducted by central government departments, public institutions, and local governments into one unified service. Through collaboration between the Ministry of the Interior and Safety and the Ministry of Health and Welfare, Hwaseong and Chuncheon were selected as pilot areas in July last year, and the Integrated Care Headquarters was organized in January this year.

The Integrated Care Headquarters operates three centers in Hwaseong and two centers in Chuncheon, where public officials from city halls and health centers, as well as employees from the National Health Insurance Service and Korea Land and Housing Corporation, work jointly to establish a cooperative system and integrate services. The main services include ?health care, ?nursing, ?lifestyle support, and ?housing welfare support. In the health care sector, services such as health management using information and communication technology (ICT), post-discharge patient management services, and visiting medical care linked with medical staff are provided.

In the nursing sector, a newly developed ‘On-Demand Visiting Integrated Home Care Service’ is being pilot-operated to provide sufficient services for long-term care recipients who require care at any time. The ‘On-Demand Visiting Integrated Home Care Service’ restructures the usual once-a-day visiting care service, which has limitations in providing on-demand assistance such as medication or meal support, into 2 to 3 visits per day, enabling recipients to receive visiting care and nursing services at the times they need.

In the lifestyle support sector, services include accompaniment or mobility support for elderly individuals with difficulty moving, as well as meal support services such as lunchbox delivery. The housing welfare sector includes home renovation projects and housing support tailored to the characteristics of the elderly to enhance convenience.

Meanwhile, at the launching ceremony, a ‘Joint Agreement on the Operation of the Elderly Care Delivery System Pilot Project’ was signed among participating institutions to ensure the successful operation of the pilot project. The Ministry of the Interior and Safety plans to create a new model of health and welfare services for elderly people who wish to live in their communities rather than hospitals or facilities through this ‘Elderly Care Delivery System Reform’ pilot project and to expand it nationwide.

Park Sung-ho, Director of Local Autonomy and Decentralization at the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, said, “The biggest feature of the new integrated elderly care service is that the elderly can receive services tailored to their needs where they have lived,” adding, “We will strive to create a new model to solve elderly care issues by linking with village welfare and residents’ councils currently promoted by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety.”

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