Middle-aged Adults in Pain and Youth Caring for Family Receive 'Daily Care'

Care Services for Middle-Aged Adults Needing Support and Young Family Caregivers
Ministry of Health and Welfare Announces 'Daily Care Service Project Plan'

The government will provide daily care services starting from the second half of this year to middle-aged and young adults who need care due to illness or isolation. This marks a significant expansion of social services, which were previously mainly available to vulnerable groups. However, service fees will be supported differentially based on income levels, requiring the middle class to pay according to their ability in order to receive welfare benefits.

On the 5th, the Ministry of Health and Welfare announced that from the second half of this year, daily care services will be offered to middle-aged adults (aged 40?64) and family caregiving youth (aged 13?34) who require care due to illness, isolation, or other reasons. The ‘daily care service’ is designed to provide integrated support such as care, household chores, hospital accompaniment, and psychological support to middle-aged adults (aged 40?64) who have difficulty performing daily activities alone due to illness, injury, or isolation and cannot receive family care, as well as to ‘young carers’?family caregiving youth (including adolescents, aged 13?34) who care for family members in need or bear livelihood responsibilities because of caregiving. The service aims to address the ‘blind spots’ where socially isolated individuals have been excluded from welfare services despite their need for support.

The core of the ‘daily care service’ lies in expanding the target social service recipients to include middle-aged and young adults. Existing care services have been focused on the elderly, disabled, and children, making it difficult for middle-aged and young adults to access them. Particularly, middle-aged adults experiencing illness, injury, or isolation are vulnerable to solitary death due to social isolation and have had limited service options beyond job support. Family caregiving youth also require various services such as daily care, psychological support, and social interaction enhancement, but have been left in blind spots due to not meeting service provision criteria such as age and income level.

To resolve these ‘blind spots,’ the government has allowed service use based on need regardless of income. While there are no usage restrictions based on income, service fees will be charged differentially according to income levels. Once selected as service recipients, individuals can choose the services they wish to use, pay the corresponding user fees, and receive service vouchers. Recipients can then use these vouchers to select institutions within their region that provide daily care services. Service providers will primarily be excellent private institutions, with plans to create conditions for high-quality service provision through regular consulting and staff training.

Composed of ‘In-Home Care and Household Services’ Provided in All Areas and ‘Specialized Services’ Planned by Each Region

Daily care services consist of two components: the basic ‘in-home care and household services’ provided commonly across all project areas, and ‘specialized services’ independently planned and provided by each region based on local demand and conditions. The in-home care and household services involve service providers visiting users’ homes to flexibly offer care, household chores, and accompaniment support (such as bank visits and shopping) within a set number of hours. Depending on the user’s situation, services will be provided from 12 hours up to a maximum of 72 hours per month. However, the maximum of 72 hours will be exceptionally provided only in cases where independent daily living is impossible.

Specialized services consist of various offerings aimed at reducing daily burdens such as psychological support and social interaction enhancement, tailored according to regional conditions and demand. In line with the social service advancement policy to strengthen user choice, users will be able to select and use up to two specialized services provided by their region. The government has preliminarily selected 37 cities and counties across 12 metropolitan and provincial areas as project sites to provide daily care services. Each region plans to begin service provision in the second half of this year.

Lee Ki-il, First Vice Minister of Health and Welfare, stated, “We expect that middle-aged adults who have had difficulty performing daily activities alone due to illness, injury, or isolation, as well as young adults caring for family members in need, will enjoy improved quality of life through daily care services. Starting with this project, we will gradually expand the number of users and improve service quality, continuously striving to establish a nationwide care provision foundation through the advancement of social services.”

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