Yeongdeungpo-gu Launches Integrated Care Volunteer Service for Elderly Living Alone

Volunteer groups from 18 neighborhoods with over 300 members check on the health and well-being of more than 180 vulnerable elderly residents

Weekly visits, check-in calls... sharing side dishes, outings, companionship, birthday celebrations, and more

Building an integrated community care welfare network to prevent solitary deaths and support socially vulnerable groups

Choi Ho-gwon, Mayor of Yeongdeungpo District, and volunteers preparing water kimchi to deliver to elderly people living alone

Yeongdeungpo-gu (District Mayor Choi Ho-kwon) announced that it is promoting the ‘Walking Together’ volunteer program, which delivers meals to vulnerable elderly living alone while checking on their health and well-being, thereby establishing an integrated care welfare network.

With 1.53 million people nationwide at risk of solitary death while living alone, the district’s elderly single-person households aged 60 and above total approximately 15,000 and continue to increase.

In response, the district has partnered with the Yeongdeungpo-gu Volunteer Center to launch the ‘Walking Together’ volunteer activities to prevent solitary deaths and carefully attend to the physical and mental health and care gaps of the elderly.

The plan is to build a dense local community network to realize robust welfare for socially vulnerable groups.

Since February, over 300 volunteer members from 18 neighborhoods in the district have been caring for more than 180 elderly living alone through weekly visits or check-in calls. Additionally, they provide personalized, close care such as sharing side dishes, delivering groceries, preparing birthday meals, and accompanying seniors to hospital visits.

In particular, the district delivered homemade summer water kimchi to the elderly and, together with local company Koscom, organized a spring outing to Imjingak in Paju for about 110 seniors. In June, a ‘Walking Together Volunteer Corps Launch Ceremony’ will be held to bring volunteer members and elderly living alone together for communication.

An elderly resident living in Singil-dong expressed gratitude after receiving a birthday meal prepared by the volunteer group, saying, “My children don’t even celebrate my birthday, so I feel so fortunate to have this. They always bring food when they visit, and I’m very thankful.”

Alongside this, the district operates projects for vulnerable elderly such as the ‘Happy Community,’ which uses AI speakers to check on seniors and respond to emergencies, and the ‘Apricot Doorbell,’ which delivers health drinks three times a week to monitor well-being. It also runs the ‘Dementia Elderly Care Family Volunteer’ program, where dementia patients, their families, and residents live together, leading the establishment of an integrated care system.

Choi Ho-kwon, Mayor of Yeongdeungpo-gu, stated, “We will strive to expand the Walking Together volunteer program to care for more elderly residents. As the number of elderly continues to rise, Yeongdeungpo-gu will take the lead in building a regional integrated care system focused on prevention, management, and observation to prevent solitary deaths and support the physical and mental well-being of our seniors.”