Damyang-gun Receives Minister of Health and Welfare Award for 'Dementia Prevention Management Project'

[Damyang=Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Yuk-bong] Damyang County, Jeollanam-do (Governor Choi Hyung-sik) announced on the 22nd that it was selected as an excellent institution in the dementia prevention management project evaluation on the occasion of the ‘13th Dementia Overcoming Day’ and received the Minister of Health and Welfare Award for its active promotion of community dementia management projects.

The county earned the honor of being recognized as an excellent institution by operating Dementia Safe Villages, part of the ‘National Dementia Responsibility System,’ and running various high-quality dementia prevention screening and management programs centered on dementia patients and their families in the community.

‘Dementia Overcoming Day (on the 21st)’ was designated worldwide in 1995 by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Alzheimer’s Disease International (ADI) to raise awareness of dementia patient care by families and society.

The county’s Dementia Safety Center operated various high-quality programs and achieved first place for two consecutive years in the government joint evaluation among 22 cities and counties in Jeollanam-do.

Since March last year, two villages, Seokhyeon-ri in Geumseong-myeon and Goeup-ri in Goseo-myeon, were designated to provide one-on-one face-to-face visiting care services and dementia cognitive management, and through linkage with 106 dementia-related institutions in the region, medical welfare services without dementia blind spots have also been provided.

In particular, when program operation became inevitable due to COVID-19, the county received favorable evaluations by providing ‘one-on-one visiting elderly care services’ targeting mild dementia patients in shelter programs and operating dementia family support programs.

Kim Soon-bok, head of the health center, said, “Taking this award as an opportunity, we will do our best to promote support projects so that the elderly in the region can spend their later years comfortably in a better environment,” and added, “We will continue to lead efforts to create a dementia-safe Damyang by discovering various programs.”