[1st Anniversary of Mayor Kang Gijeong of Gwangju in the 8th Local Government]⑥ 'Integrated Care' Benchmarked Nationwide

April 1 Launch of 'Gwangju-daum Integrated Care' Public Care System Settled

Average 125 Service Applications per Day and Over 8,300 On-site Visits to Identify Gaps

Mayor Kang: "The New Value Complementing 80 Years of Democratic Gwangju Is Ca

The biggest hit product of the 8th term of the Gwangju Metropolitan City administration can be said to be the ‘Gwangju-daum Integrated Care’.

For citizens who have difficulty living alone due to physical and emotional challenges, have no family to care for them, and find it difficult to receive existing care support, ‘Gwangju-daum Integrated Care’ has become a public care system that they can safely use nearby. As local governments nationwide, including Jeju, Busan, and Daejeon, visit Gwangju to benchmark this system, ‘Gwangju-daum Integrated Care’ has emerged as Gwangju’s hit product.

‘Gwangju-daum Integrated Care’ originated from Mayor Kang Gi-jung’s philosophy of the ‘Expanded Gwangju Spirit.’ It is the result of the democratic city Gwangju’s commitment to take responsibility for and protect the life of each citizen.

Mayor Kang said, “Gwangju must seek new values to complement 80 years of democracy. That is care,” adding, “Care is an investment in people and an investment toward tomorrow.”

▲ Starting from the expanded ‘Gwangju Spirit’

In May 1980, Gwangju protected the dignity and freedom of its citizens through sharing and solidarity by caring for one another. In 2023, it has been reborn as a care city. Through the realization of integrated care without blind spots, Gwangju citizens are now freed from the situation where each had to be responsible for their own care.

Gwangju City focused on care services for ‘any citizen.’ ‘Gwangju-daum Integrated Care’ boldly removed age, income, and property criteria, opening an era of universal care where any citizen can receive services according to their level of care needs.

Mayor Kang Gi-jung said, “We had to change the care paradigm from family responsibility to social responsibility,” adding, “Living with my mother and thinking of all the mothers and fathers who once led Korea’s industrialization, I enacted the Basic Old-Age Pension Act and the Long-Term Care Insurance Act for the Elderly during my time as a member of the National Assembly. Now, in this era of aging and low birth rates, I will do my best to build a dense and warm care city, Gwangju, filling the gaps.”

‘Gwangju-daum Integrated Care’ is characterized by universality, allowing any citizen to use it whenever care is needed. It also established a single application window called ‘Care Call’ (1660-2642), which eliminates the hassle of applying for each needed service, providing convenience. Along with public responsibility to proactively discover citizens in blind spots without requiring applications, Gwangju established seven major care services to further fill the gaps in the existing network.

▲ Smooth landing through thorough preparation

Gwangju City analyzed that it is having a smooth first year thanks to the meticulous prior preparation of participating entities.

To launch the Gwangju-daum Integrated Care service, the city secured dedicated organizations and budgets with five autonomous districts and the city council, prepared operational guidelines, enacted ordinances, negotiated with the Ministry of Health and Welfare for the new system, opened the Care Call, and signed business agreements with 13 partner organizations, ensuring thorough prior preparation.

In particular, from February to March, a total of 47 sessions of operational guideline training and case management professional education were conducted for case managers at the district administrative welfare centers who meet citizens in need of care first and plan what services to provide. Additionally, 31 professional training sessions were held to improve the understanding of the business and service quality for private sector ‘care workers’ who directly provide services.

This led to the discovery of care gaps previously excluded from existing care systems, enabling dense support in crisis situations requiring gap support. It is also reported to have effects on improving quality of life as well as preventing solitary deaths and suicides.

▲ 80 days of integrated care and its achievements

Since the implementation of Gwangju-daum Integrated Care on April 1, 3,899 applications have been received over 80 days, and 6,640 services have been requested. Considering holidays, an average of 125 people applied daily for the Gwangju-daum Integrated Care service.

Notably, 41.7% (1,626 people) of applicants used the Care Call to apply, proving the effectiveness of the ‘single application window that visits homes with just one phone call.’

Active case discovery through field visits and provision of customized services were also carried out. A total of 323 case managers from 97 district administrative welfare centers conducted home visits to directly check the situations of citizens in need of care and connect them with services tailored to their individual circumstances, carrying out 8,341 field visit activities.

Field visits were conducted through citizen applications (3,899 cases) and mandatory proactive visits (4,442 cases) to care blind spots where social networks were severed and applications were unlikely.

Such mandatory visits, which check on care needs and provide welfare information even without applications, were actively promoted to the extent that they exceeded the number of citizen applications, resulting in the discovery of a large number of welfare blind spots.

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