The Story of Saving an Elderly Person Trapped in Garbage in Gongdeok-dong, Mapo-gu?

Elderly Trapped in Garbage and Loneliness... Taking a Step Toward a New Life

Gongdeok-dong, Mapo-gu, Removes 1 Ton of Garbage After 10 Months of Persuasion

Registered for Integrated Case Management and Provided Post-Service... District Focuses on Eliminating Welfare Blind Spots

An elderly person living alone, who had cut off all ties with children, siblings, and other family members after divorce and was living surrounded by accumulated garbage inside the house, has taken a step toward a new daily life.

This was thanks to the consistent attention and persistent persuasion by the Gongdeok-dong Community Service Center in Mapo-gu (Mayor Park Gang-su).

The elderly person is a recipient of the National Basic Livelihood Security Program and was hospitalized last August due to a fall accident. However, when the elderly wished to be discharged early, the hospital requested the Gongdeok-dong Community Service Center to provide accompaniment services for outpatient treatment.

Accordingly, the welfare officer at the community center conducted counseling and home visits to assess the situation.

Since moving into the current multi-family house two years ago, the elderly had been living without disposing of various food waste and miscellaneous junk, accumulating them inside the house. Due to fragile health, urgent improvements in the living environment and daily life management were needed, but the elderly had refused consent for welfare services.

However, after nearly 10 months of persuasion, the elderly expressed a desire to improve the living environment and was registered as a target for integrated case management in May.

Through this, the district was able to remove about 1 ton of garbage accumulated inside the elderly person's home on the 31st of last month. The work was carried out in collaboration with the Resident Life Welfare Division of the district office, which oversees integrated case management, the Seoul Central Housing Safety Center supporting cleaning for hoarding households, and others. Additional special disinfection treatment will be conducted with the help of the Mapo-gu Disabled Vocational Rehabilitation Center.

The elderly said, “Seeing the garbage piling up at home, I wanted to clean it up, but as my health worsened, I couldn’t bring myself to do it. But people who barely know me helped me so much, and I don’t know how to repay this kindness,” expressing gratitude.

The community center plans to additionally connect the elderly with various welfare services such as elderly tailored care services for daily life management and applications for nursing care grades.

Park Gang-su, Mayor of Mapo-gu, said, “Persuading elderly people living in such conditions is not easy, but through continuous attention and understanding, we were able to open their hearts. We will continue to strengthen the local welfare safety net to eliminate welfare blind spots.”

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