142 Health Partners Begin Activities at ‘Haha Village Health Centers’
Frailty Screening, Health Program Operation, and Support for Health Small Groups
Collaboration with Various Institutions and Training of Frailty Prevention Specialists
Busan City (Mayor Park Hyung-jun) is launching the nation’s first ‘Frailty Prevention Job’ project that simultaneously addresses senior employment and health issues.
This win-win project is the ‘Haha Health Partner’ initiative, based on cooperation among health, welfare, and medical sectors, and was officially introduced starting this month.
On the 10th, Busan City announced that a total of 142 health partners will support the citizens’ frailty prevention project called the ‘Health Up (UP) Project’ at the ‘Haha Village Health Centers.’
Since 2016, Busan has been the only metropolitan local government in the country to operate the ‘Village Health Center Project,’ a community-based health management institution, as a specialized project, and from this year, these centers are called ‘Haha Village Health Centers.’
The frailty prevention project of the Village Health Centers, the ‘Health Up (UP) Project,’ was piloted in 2023 and expanded to all Village Health Centers in 2024. Starting this year, the city plans to assign ‘Haha Health Partners’ to the Village Health Centers and develop this into a flagship project to ensure healthy aging.
This year, about 90 institutions will participate in the project, including 61 Haha Village Health Centers, 7 Health Life Support Centers, 7 public and private hospitals, 15 district and county senior clubs, and the Haha Campus Health Center.
‘Haha Health Partners’ are assigned to Village Health Centers, Health Life Support Centers, and Haha Campus Health Centers after completing a certain period of job training. There, together with village health activists, they carry out tasks such as ▲frailty screening (frailty screening, sarcopenia screening, depression, social isolation) ▲operation of the Health Up (UP) program ▲operation and support of health small groups.
To this end, public health centers and seven partner hospitals provide capacity-building training for the frailty specialists, the ‘Haha Health Partners.’ Implementing organizations such as senior clubs assist in supporting and managing participants’ work.
Busan has the highest proportion of seniors aged 65 and over among the eight special and metropolitan cities, at 23.9% as of last year, and was the fastest to enter a super-aged society.
Accordingly, social isolation, medical and health management issues among Busan’s elderly, and the resulting social burdens are higher than in other large cities. Considering Korea’s high elderly poverty rate, Busan citizens are significantly exposed to threats to health and income in their later years.
Lee So-ra, Director of the Citizen Health Bureau of Busan City, said, “We expect this project to build a health community where neighbors care for each other in the village and contribute to supporting active aging and alleviating social isolation among Busan citizens.”
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
