[Hot Policy] ‘Isolation and Reclusive Youth Helpers’ Ministry of Health and Welfare Youth Policy Team

Targeting Youth Seeking External Support
Customized Measures Including Dedicated Staff Communication for 1,903 Individuals Who Provided Personal Information

The government’s concern over young people who are not working is deepening. This is due to the increasing number of not only 'NEETs (voluntary non-employed persons)'?those who are neither seeking jobs nor employed without special reasons such as serious illness, childcare, housework, or commuting?but also ‘isolated and reclusive youth’ who choose to disconnect from society beyond just the workplace.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare is paying the most attention to isolated and reclusive youth. Since the announcement of a Statistics Korea survey last May revealing that the number of ‘isolated and reclusive youth’ reached 540,000, the Ministry has been preparing support measures for this group. From December last year, they began unveiling the framework of related policies and started designing detailed plans. Jang Young-jin, head of the Youth Policy Team at the Population Policy Office of the Ministry of Health and Welfare, said in an interview with Asia Economy on the 27th, “Urgent measures were needed to prevent more young people from falling into isolation.”

The core of the support policy for isolated and reclusive youth is placed on ‘urgent prevention.’ Team Leader Jang said, “After the Statistics Korea announcement, an in-depth survey was conducted through the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs, which found that about 21,000 young people were aware of their own condition,” adding, “We judged that the policy effectiveness would be highest for those who recognize the need for external support themselves, and thus designated them as the most urgent target.”

He explained, “Among them, we created programs to do our best to bring out 1,903 individuals who agreed to provide personal information.” This consent is necessary to utilize the data so that dedicated personnel can make various attempts such as phone calls, counseling, and encouraging participation in group activities to reach out to these youth.

Team Leader Jang said, “Different prescriptions are needed depending on the condition of the youth,” and added, “First, in the second half of the year, we will establish ‘Youth Future Centers’ in four regions and have dedicated staff build ‘rapport’ (friendly human relationships built for counseling) with young people who are reluctant to engage in outside activities.” The staff at the Youth Future Centers will help isolated youth with small communications, such as regularly ensuring they have meals and engaging in casual conversations.

Only eight specialized management personnel for isolated and reclusive youth teams will be assigned to each center. He said, “One team leader and seven case managers with social worker qualifications or mental health counseling experience will be assigned,” and added, “Although more than 20 youth interns will be deployed to each center, the scale is indeed very small.” This is because the project budget is only 2 billion won. Team Leader Jang expressed hope that “metropolitan local governments would provide additional personnel deployment and support.”

The biggest challenge Team Leader Jang faced while designing the policy was convincing the skeptical public about supporting young people who appear physically healthy and selecting the target group with the greatest policy effect among 540,000 youth within a limited budget. He said, “We aimed to design policies focusing on young people who do not expect much but have the will to return to society by supporting them to manage daily life so they can stand up again.”

This project is a pilot program lasting about two years. Although there is great interest in youth, social awareness and support for isolated youth remain weak. Team Leader Jang stated, “We will proceed with this as a pilot project first, but the goal is to expand the project nationwide after two years.” He added, “In the second half of the year, we need to secure good personnel who are on the front lines of bringing isolated and reclusive youth back to society, and we hope our project will settle so that these individuals can also build expertise in stable jobs.”

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