Geochang County to Expand Integrated Care Services in the Era of Population Aging

Anyone, Anytime, At Home!
Expanding Integrated Care Centers for Enhanced Care Support

In Geochang-gun, Gyeongsangnam-do, welfare policies are drawing attention as a new welfare model for county-level local governments amid the rise of single-person households in the era of aging society.

In particular, as the proportion of elderly single-person households increases, the role of local governments in addressing welfare blind spots within the community is becoming more important than ever.

Geochang-gun has allocated 175.2 billion KRW, which is 23.5% of its initial 2025 budget of 801.5 billion KRW, to welfare, actively working to eliminate welfare blind spots.

The county operates "customized care, visiting care" services so that residents can receive one-stop care services whenever needed, strengthening field-oriented welfare administration.

Group photo of community activists capacity-building training in Geochang-gun.

In July 2024, to strengthen the foundation for one-stop care, the county established care support centers in 12 towns and townships and held the Gyeongsangnam-do Senior Care Support System Proclamation Ceremony in Geochang-gun.

The county is training "Onbomjigi (village activists)," who are volunteer residents caring for other residents; currently, 128 people are active, forming a dense human safety welfare network that directly seeks out care blind spots.

In addition, the number of integrated care centers is being expanded from three to four, building regional infrastructure to enhance the quality of care services. Notably, in July of this year, a new "Integrated Care Hub Center" will be established to oversee three regions and extend care benefits to Geochang-eup, which had previously been excluded from services.

Furthermore, through practical, life-oriented services such as ▲care support linked to discharged patients ▲housing environment improvement project "Reliable Our Home" ▲home organization service for vulnerable groups "Visiting Clean Bus" ▲customized daily necessities support ▲mobility support "Care Taxi," the county is strengthening its everyday care system.

Geochang-gun is promoting a community-integrated care project so that "any resident, anytime, at home" can receive one-stop care support. On March 20, the "Gyeongnam Integrated Care Bus" visited Yeongseung Village in Mari-myeon.

This event was organized for residents in areas with low access to medical and welfare services, offering a variety of customized services in one place. On-site, services included ▲free Korean medicine treatment by Korea Hospital ▲Geochang-gun Public Health Center's Oral Health Bus ▲Smart health information and counseling by Ddoktti Bus ▲Laundry support by Laundry Bus ▲Home organization by Clean Bus ▲food trucks, youth photo shoots, and various local resource-linked services.

Going beyond simple service provision, this comprehensive support, which also covers emotional care, resulted in very high resident satisfaction.

For mobility-impaired people with disabilities and low-income elderly living alone, the "Warm Greetings, Meal Delivery Project" is being implemented to check on them regularly. In addition, the "Monthly Family" project, in cooperation with the Geochang-gun Volunteer Center, will help resolve social isolation among high-risk groups for solitary death and support the formation of social networks.

Furthermore, the "Greeting Mail Service" project was selected again this year following last year, securing a budget of 42 million KRW. Geochang-gun has signed an agreement with Geochang Post Office, and postal workers will regularly visit 225 households under intensive management to check on their well-being.

In addition, through an agreement with Korea Electric Power Corporation, the county is promoting the "Single-Person Household Greeting Service," which uses AI-based analysis of electricity and communication usage to quickly detect and respond to abnormal patterns in daily life. This contributes to building a dense care system that can identify high-risk groups for solitary death early and enable emergency response.

County Governor Koo Inmo stated, "We are doing our best to build a dense social safety net so that all residents can enjoy a safe and healthy life. In addition to the various care services currently being promoted, we will continue to discover and implement even more innovative policies to make Geochang-gun the best welfare city in the country."