Development of a New Mobile Non-Face-to-Face Visiting Space in the COVID-19 Era
Mayor Oh Se-hoon Visits Dedicated Visiting Space 'Family Living Room' for Non-Face-to-Face Meetings with Seniors
[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced on the 6th that it has developed a dedicated non-face-to-face visitation space called the ‘Family Living Room’ for families who are experiencing painful separations from their parents in nursing facilities due to COVID-19. This was achieved through Seoul’s ‘Social Problem-Solving Design’ initiative.
The ‘Family Living Room’ is a separate space where visits can take place in a cozy and warm environment like a home living room, rather than a bleak and artificial visitation room. It is a new type of living room created by the COVID-19 era. The city named it ‘Family Living Room’ to reflect this meaning. It is made as a movable wooden house with an area of about 15㎡ (4.5 pyeong) and can be installed in appropriate locations outside nursing facilities.
Unlike existing visitation rooms, it allows family members to hold hands and talk. Protective gloves used for specimen collection at screening clinics have been installed. This is the first attempt at a non-contact visitation method through the ‘Family Living Room’.
A ‘state-of-the-art sound system’ that clearly captures even the faint voices of the elderly has also been installed. Elderly people with hearing difficulties can hear their family’s voices well through the glass window. A large display is also installed, which can be connected (mirroring) to the family’s smartphones to view photos and videos together, and video calls can be made with other family members who live abroad or could not visit due to visitation restrictions. At the end of the visit, families can also leave a photo memory together.
The Seoul Metropolitan Government will pilot the ‘Family Living Room’ it developed at the municipal nursing facility ‘Seoul Eastern Senior Nursing Center’ and operate it regularly from the first week of May. The design manual developed this time will be released as an open-source free of charge.
Mayor Oh Se-hoon will visit the ‘Family Living Room’ at the Seoul Eastern Senior Nursing Center on the afternoon of the day ahead of Parents’ Day. He will have a non-face-to-face visit with the elderly using the center and present a surprise non-face-to-face VR travel gift for Parents’ Day. Mayor Oh will also have a video call session with the elderly at the center. Additionally, he will encourage nursing facility staff and caregivers who are working hard during the COVID-19 situation and watch a busking performance prepared for Parents’ Day.
Mayor Oh said, “Although various vulnerable groups are suffering due to the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic, especially elderly people in nursing facilities and their families are enduring great pain from long-term separations. We have developed a social problem-solving design that delicately considers not only quarantine hygiene but also their daily emotions in preparation for the COVID-19 situation. We will continue to expand proactive designs that warmly look into citizens’ daily lives from their perspective.”
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