Jeonnam Provincial Assembly Member Choi Hyun-joo Urges 'Placement of Child Abuse Healing Center and Dedicated Officials'

Choi Hyun-joo, Jeonnam Provincial Assembly Member

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Lee Jun-kyung] Choi Hyun-joo, a Jeonnam Provincial Assembly member (Justice Party, proportional representation), announced on the 3rd during the 351st extraordinary session provincial government questioning that she called for the establishment of a ‘public psychological healing center’ for the prevention and management of child abuse and the placement of ‘child abuse dedicated public officials’ in Jeonnam Province.

According to Assembly member Choi Hyun-joo, the number of reported child abuse cases over the past three years is 2,000, of which 1,700 were confirmed as actual child abuse cases, and there are about 200 cases of re-abuse.

Assembly member Choi pointed out, “The government has been implementing the ‘immediate separation system’ since March 30, but the infrastructure to actually carry this out is insufficient.”

The immediate separation system is a system that, when a child has been reported for child abuse two or more times within one year and during the on-site investigation process there is a strong suspicion of abuse and a risk of re-abuse, temporarily places the child in a protective facility or a shelter for abused children.

Assembly member Choi said, “The government’s budget for children and youth accounts for only 3% of the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s budget, and of that, the budget related to child abuse is only 0.03%. Since the system is implemented without a proper budget, problems are inevitable.” She urged for countermeasures, stating, “Currently, about 134 cases in Jeonnam require immediate separation, but the actual capacity to accommodate is only 57.”

She continued, “The child abuse dedicated public officials assigned to cities and counties, who are responsible for investigating abuse sites, play an important role in determining whether abuse has occurred in each case,” and emphasized, “Case determination requires a great deal of expertise, so dedicated public officials with secured expertise are absolutely necessary.”

She added, “For child abuse dedicated public officials, characteristics of their work such as overtime and special work are only recognized for 4 hours of extra working time, and treatment varies by city and county, making it a task to avoid,” and argued, “To overcome this, we must actively consider appointing fixed-term officials with secured expertise who can work long-term.”

In addition, Assembly member Choi proposed the construction of a Jeonnam ‘public psychological counseling center’ to support issues such as child psychological counseling and parental treatment for family reunification.

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