Creating a New Paradigm for 'Senior + Disability' Health and Care... Korea Disabled Sports Promotion Institute 38th Anniversary Reception

Presenting a Vision for Integrated Care Services Covering Institutions and Academia

Health Dance, Therapy, Community Welfare, and Job Models Included

"There has never been a companionship like this before!"

A new health and care paradigm aiming to "break down the walls between people with disabilities and those without, and to accompany each other in a broad space including the senior population" is being established.

They say that slight differences and inconveniences cannot be boundaries between people with and without disabilities. Here, experienced seniors join in to seek coexistence and prepare for tomorrow.

The Korea Disabled Sports Association (KDSA), a nonprofit organization, will hold a reception titled "Companionship of 70 - People Who Know How to Get Along a Little" on December 1 at Daeboreum, Osiria Square, Gijang-gun, Busan.

This event commemorates the 38th anniversary of the organization’s founding, proposes a new paradigm for health and care for people with disabilities and seniors, and presents governance construction and vision for a new leap forward.

KDSA (Chairman Choi Jung-woo) is a public interest corporation creating a new paradigm of disability so that people with disabilities and seniors become subjects of diversity and full members of social participation in a society where they coexist.

KDSA’s primary goal is to promote the health of people with disabilities and seniors. Along with activating physical activities in daily life to prevent acquired physical disabilities, which account for over 70% of total disability rates, it plans to provide integrated services including welfare, culture, arts, and education for people with disabilities and seniors.

To this end, KDSA operates visiting senior health dance classes and runs an affiliated institution called "Senior Island," which serves as a dance therapy hub center. It also plans to establish a "Regional Welfare Research Institute" for living lab research at the community level and development of customized care programs for demanders, promoting full-scale integrated care services for seniors.

At this reception, Busan Mayor Park Hyung-joon and Busan City Council Chairman Ahn Sung-min will send video congratulatory messages. National Assembly member Jung Dong-man, Gijang-gun Mayor Jung Jong-bok, Gijang-gun Council Chairman Park Woo-sik, Choi Taek-yong, Democratic Party Gijang-gun Regional Chairman, Kim Sung-ho CEO of Segi System Co., Ltd., and Professor Kim Tae-hyung, Chair of the Department of Social Welfare at Busan University of Foreign Studies, will attend in person to deliver congratulatory speeches.

Additionally, congratulatory messages will be delivered from Lee Sang-heon, Standing Chairman of the National Assembly’s Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee; National Assembly members Jang Je-won, Kim Seung-soo, Jeon Jae-soo, Bae Hyun-jin, Hong Ik-pyo, Ryu Ho-jeong, Lee Yong; Busan Superintendent of Education Ha Yun-su; and Haeundae District Mayor Kim Sung-soo.

On this day, to share the will to create and spread new social welfare values for people with disabilities and seniors and to establish a practical public-academic cooperation model, an MOU will be signed with Busan University of Foreign Studies.

Choi Jung-woo, Chairman of the Korea Disabled Sports Promotion Agency.

Choi Jung-woo, Chairman of the Korea Disabled Sports Association, said, "Currently, the senior population aged 65 and over in our society has exceeded 9 million as of last year, and by 2025, we will enter a super-aged society where seniors will account for more than 20.3% of the total population."

Chairman Choi added, "KDSA is preparing for a new leap forward with integrated care services encompassing people with disabilities and seniors by actively utilizing the human and material infrastructure developed over the past 38 years in promoting sports for people with disabilities and revitalizing culture and arts. Starting with this reception, we will make next year the inaugural year of a new paradigm," he emphasized.