Gwangju City Councilor Lee Myeong-no Points Out "Many Issues in the 'Care Project for Severely Disabled People with Developmental Disorders'"

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Yoon Jamin] Claims have been raised that there are several issues in the operation of the ‘Gwangju Severe Developmental Disabilities Integrated Care Project,’ which has been providing the nation’s first 24-hour one-on-one care service for people with developmental disabilities.

On the 25th, Lee Myung-no, a member of the Gwangju Metropolitan Council (Democratic Party, Seo-gu 3, Pungam·Hwajeong 3·4), pointed out during a 5-minute free speech at the 4th plenary session of the 308th extraordinary meeting, “One and a half years after the start of the Severe Developmental Disabilities Integrated Care Project, troubling issues such as pre-designation suspicions of research service contracts and employment stability problems for workers have surfaced.”

The Severe Developmental Disabilities Integrated Care Project is a care service for people with severe disabilities, initiated by Gwangju City in March last year as the nation’s first effort to take public responsibility for the caregiving burden borne by individuals and families.

To this end, Gwangju City formed a TF team to discover developmental disability support policies, established a ‘Severe Developmental Disabilities Support Plan,’ introduced a policy specialist system, created a support team within the Developmental Disabilities Support Center, and built a dedicated system for the Severe Developmental Disabilities Integrated Care Project.

Councilman Lee stated, “The integrated care project, selected as a pilot project by the Ministry of Health and Welfare and receiving 4.5 billion KRW in national funding over three years, recently lost its policy specialist, and most workers, including the support team overseeing the project, are hired as contract workers or hourly part-time employees.” He added, “This has led to employment stability issues, undermining the project’s original purpose of aiming for stable public care.”

He further claimed, “Various problems have emerged, including suspicions that a research service contract worth hundreds of millions of won was pre-designated to a specific individual, raising doubts about the project’s sustainability.”

He emphasized, “The policy specialist position must be restored, and the support team and care workers’ treatment should be improved as originally designed. Thorough investigations into the suspicions related to the research service contract are necessary.” He also stressed, “A fair re-selection and a comprehensive reevaluation of the support delivery system must be conducted to establish a unified support system.”

He added, “I hope that the project, which began with the heartfelt cries of people with developmental disabilities and their families, does not produce only various negative effects behind its impressive title as the nation’s first.” He concluded, “I look forward to the further development of disability policies based on the stabilization of the care project.”

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