"When Dementia Comes, It's Nursing Home Time. Even If It Takes an Hour, I Go to Study" [Turning My Home into a Senior House]

Unlike Senior Centers, the Care and Health School Offers Much to Learn
To Continue Living at Home, Seniors Need to Stay Active and Healthy
Depression Among the Elderly Also Decreases

On November 6 last year, elderly people are doing aerobic exercise at the Dolbom Health School located in Daedeok-gu, Daejeon. Photo by Kang Jin-hyung

"Senior centers have nothing to learn. All they do is play 10-won Go-Stop. But here, they teach us exercises and how to play the ocarina. I only finished elementary school. It's good to learn something."

The Care and Health School located in the commercial area of Jungri Jugong Apartment Complex 3 in Daedeok-gu, Daejeon, is a place where grandmother Jeong Soon-im (82) fulfills her 'regret of not being educated.' From Monday to Friday, she takes a bus every morning and spends an hour to 'attend school' here.

Most of the elderly attending the Care and Health School are residents of apartments near Jungri-dong. Grandmother Jeong lives in a detached house in Songcheon-dong, which is quite far away. How did she come to be connected with this place? "How would I have known there was a Care and Health School here? I had no idea. I used to suffer from depression, and a social worker recommended this place. When I called to ask if I could attend, they told me to come. From the next day, I started attending and have not missed a single day for half a year."

Grandmother Jeong Sun-im is being interviewed after finishing aerobic exercise at the Care Health School in Daedeok-gu, Daejeon on November 6 last year. Photo by Kang Jin-hyung

Grandmother Jeong insists on coming here instead of the local senior center because her goal is to avoid dementia and not go to a nursing home. The school holds dementia prevention activity classes for an hour starting at 10 a.m. Following the rhythm of the Fumi Net walking exercise that enhances cognitive ability, sweat soon beads on the forehead.

"If you get dementia, you have no choice but to go to a nursing home. From what I've seen with friends, once you go there, no one comes back out. I don't want a nursing home. I'm used to and like the house I lived in. It's the house where I lived with my husband for over 50 years. All my friends are here too. To live in my home, I have to move more and use my brain. In that sense, the school helps a lot."

Lunch is bread, boiled eggs, and soy milk brought from home. From 1 p.m., there is an aerobic exercise session with lively music to work up a sweat. Then, after finishing the ocarina class, she heads home. Grandmother Jeong said, "These days, every day is worth living," adding, "My husband passed away five years ago, and I suffered from depression, needing sleeping pills to fall asleep, but now I have stopped taking them."

On November 6 last year, elderly people were using the communal kitchen at the Dolbom Health School located in Daedeok-gu, Daejeon. Photo by Kang Jin-hyeong

Last year, Daedeok-gu conducted a survey among randomly selected elderly users of the Care and Health School, totaling 741 people. The results showed that their physical and mental health generally improved. Using body composition measurement devices to check health status, 62% of the participants showed improvement or maintenance of health. According to the Korean version of the Geriatric Depression Scale, 74% experienced a reduction in depressive symptoms.

Kim Young-rye, head of the Integrated Care Policy Team at Daedeok-gu Welfare Policy Division, said, "The elderly attending the Care and Health School have shown increased voluntary health management, which is also confirmed by the data. This place's role is to provide meaningful care services, not just a place for the elderly to pass time."

On the 6th, a certification plaque for a children's educational institution is displayed on the exterior wall of Beopdong Care Health School located in Hanmaeum Apartment complex, Daedeok-gu, Daejeon. Beopdong Care Health School is a facility established in the space of a closed daycare center. Photo by Kang Jin-hyeong