"Preventing Solitary Deaths through Welfare Checks"... Yangcheon-gu Operates 'Our Neighborhood Care Team' Year-Round

Over 60,000 Annual Monitoring Cases and Welfare Service Connections
Comprehensive Measures Including Side Dish Support

Yangcheon-gu, Seoul (Mayor Lee Gijae) announced on the 17th that it plans to establish a seamless welfare safety net through the ‘Our Neighborhood Care Team,’ where residents familiar with the area check on vulnerable groups and residents in welfare blind spots and connect them with necessary resources.

Yangcheon-gu, Tongbanjangs in Yangcheon-gu checking household mailboxes and identifying risk signs in welfare households, provided by Yangcheon-gu.

This year, the Yangcheon-gu Our Neighborhood Care Team consists of a total of 43 members who are residents with strong interest in the community and enthusiasm for volunteering and social welfare enhancement. They are primarily assigned to housing-vulnerable areas such as houses, one-room apartments, goshiwon (small dormitory rooms), and jjokbangchon (small rooms in poor neighborhoods), where they perform roles such as weekly regular check-ins on households at risk of solitary death.

Through these check-ins, the Care Team identifies detailed crisis situations of individual households and assists in linking them to welfare services such as ‘public benefits (e.g., applications under the Basic Livelihood Security Act),’ ‘emergency welfare support,’ and ‘private services (donations and sponsorships).’ They also actively participate in social networking activities, such as companionship, to alleviate loneliness and isolation among households at risk of solitary death.

Last year, the district deployed 42 Care Team members across 16 neighborhoods and conducted a total of 61,885 active monitoring cases (8,699 visits and 53,186 phone consultations). Starting in 2023, the operation start date was moved forward from April to January to monitor socially isolated at-risk households year-round.

This year, the district plans to continue year-round operation of the Our Neighborhood Care Team to ensure that vulnerable groups, including those at risk of solitary death, do not become socially isolated. It will strengthen public-private cooperation to check on at-risk households and prevent individuals from facing crises while isolated alone.

Meanwhile, as the proportion of single-person households rapidly increases, the district is broadly promoting solitary death prevention and management projects to implement robust welfare for the vulnerable.

The ‘Yangcheon Banolim Side Dish Support,’ launched last year, allows single-person households at risk of food insecurity to regularly visit local side dish stores to purchase side dishes and engage with the community. This year, the program will expand its target to 1,500 households to support healthy nutrition intake and social network formation among single-person households.

Additionally, in cooperation with about 3,500 tongbanjang (community leaders), the district proactively identifies at-risk households through mailbox patrols by household. It also plans to expand services such as the ‘AI Phone Check-in Service,’ ‘Smart Plug’ that detects risk situations through changes in electricity usage and lighting, and ‘Health Drink Support,’ which alerts community centers when abnormal signs like abandoned beverages are detected.

Mayor Lee Gijae stated, “Preventing solitary death requires efforts from local governments and the nation, but warm interest from citizens toward our neighbors and improvements in social awareness also play a significant role.” He added, “The district will carefully manage to ensure no residents are left behind based on a solid public-private cooperation system.”