Strengthening 19 Tasks in 4 Major Areas Including Welfare Blind Spot Discovery, Support, Care, and Public-Private Cooperation... Actively Responding to COVID-19 by Promoting Smart Community Care Projects for Non-Face-to-Face and Continuous Care
[Asia Economy Reporter Jong-il Park] Gwanak-gu (Mayor Park Jun-hee) is playing a significant role in filling the gaps in care blind spots by establishing a customized system through public-private cooperation to respond to the urgent care needs of vulnerable groups who are having an even harder time due to the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic.
To actively respond to the changing COVID-19 environment, the district reexamined the existing welfare safety net and prepared a strategic and flexible "2021 COVID-19 Response Welfare Safety Net Enhancement Plan."
Led by the Dong Community Service Centers, resident welfare communities, and private cooperative organizations, the plan promotes 19 tasks in four major areas: ▲strengthening the system for discovering low-income crisis households ▲linking tailored resources and enhancing care for crisis households ▲flexible operation of visiting Dong Community Service Centers ▲strengthening the operation of public-private cooperative welfare communities.
Instead of directly meeting in the field to discover welfare blind spots, the district overcomes COVID-19 challenges through a swift transition to an on-tact non-face-to-face system and active communication and cooperation with local communities.
The discovery system is strengthened to ensure low-income crisis households can safely overcome COVID-19 by enhancing the untact discovery channel "Let's Do Welfare Talk Together," expanding strategic non-face-to-face services, and conducting planned surveys to uncover hidden crisis households.
For the elderly and disabled in the region, customized services such as the 'Care SOS Center,' IoT safety check services using smart plugs, motion detectors, and robots are leading efforts to resolve their specific difficulties in crisis situations.
The welfare functions of the 'Visiting Dong Community Centers' will be expanded, monitoring of poverty crisis households will be strengthened, and flexible operations will be conducted with phased counseling adapted to the changed environment, including vaccination of visiting personnel and support for shared phones.
Similar and overlapping welfare community projects in each Dong will be integrated to operate two communities: ▲Hope Discovery Team (discovery, reporting) and ▲Neighbor Watchers (support, monitoring). This will strengthen the operation of public-private cooperative welfare communities through voluntary resident participation and capacity building, including prevention of solitary deaths, formation of social networks for single-person households, and strengthening activities of Dong Community Social Security Councils.
Meanwhile, due to the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic, the number of in-person counseling sessions decreased by 32% compared to the previous year, while non-face-to-face phone counseling increased by 284%, and emergency welfare support for low-income crisis households increased by 105%, accelerating the discovery and support of the new poverty class.
In particular, the 'Care SOS Center,' which aims to minimize care gap blind spots, has seen a 37% increase in service linkage performance through early implementation, gaining strong support from residents exhausted by COVID-19 and serving as a reliable pillar.
Park Jun-hee, Mayor of Gwanak-gu, said, "Our district's welfare policies are being strengthened in step with the changing welfare environment due to COVID-19. Gwanak-gu will take the lead in realizing an integrated local welfare community that cares together and shares together with residents through proactive administration that strengthens the welfare safety net without any negligence, even as social distancing and quarantine activities intensify and welfare environments might be neglected."
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