Increase in Specialized Counseling Staff for At-Risk Youth in Gwangjin-gu

Increase in Professional Counseling Staff at Gwangjin-gu Youth Counseling Welfare Center... Support for Youth Counseling Addressing Psychological and Emotional Issues Due to Prolonged COVID-19 Pandemic

Adolescent Counseling

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jong-il] Gwangjin-gu (Mayor Kim Seon-gap) has increased the number of dedicated counselors for at-risk youth at the Gwangjin-gu Youth Counseling and Welfare Center to provide prompt counseling support for at-risk youth in the area.

Recently, the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic has led to worsening psychological and emotional issues among youth, increased runaway incidents, and suicidal impulses, resulting in situations where youths have to wait up to two months for counseling at the Welfare Center.

Accordingly, starting this month, the district has added one professional counselor to the Youth Counseling and Welfare Center, enabling additional placement and operation of counseling services during convenient hours for youth: weekday evenings (Monday 9 AM to 7 PM, Tuesday to Friday 9 AM to 9 PM) and Saturdays (9 AM to 5 PM), allowing for prompt counseling services.

In addition, the district is making various efforts to identify and support at-risk youth in blind spots by establishing an integrated support system for at-risk youth involving the private-public-police sectors (Counseling Welfare Center - Gwangjin-gu - Gwangjin Police Station) for proactive discovery and support of high-risk youth in the community.

Kim Seon-gap, Mayor of Gwangjin-gu, said, “By increasing the number of specialized counselors for at-risk youth, we hope to listen more and deeper to the stories of youth who need psychological and emotional support and help resolve their issues. We will continue to strive to ensure that youth in Gwangjin-gu can grow up happily and healthily.”

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