Prevention and management of lonely deaths to be expanded nationwide from July

The Ministry of Health and Welfare announced on the 30th that the pilot project to prevent and manage lonely deaths, which had been implemented in 39 cities, districts and towns so far, would be implemented in all 229 city and military districts nationwide from July.
In response to the problem of social isolation and lonely deaths, which are becoming more serious due to the increase in single-person households and the weakening of social networks, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare is implementing a pilot project that will be implemented from August 2022.
The company has been providing services to prevent and manage lonely deaths, such as early detection of people at risk of lonely deaths, confirmation of their safety, and support for improving their lifestyles. Starting in July of this year, 190 local governments will be implementing a new lonely death prevention and management pilot project.
While maintaining the framework of the existing pilot project, we will utilize the social security information system and independently conduct planning and surveys targeting single-person households, studio apartments, family homes, goshiwons, and areas with a high concentration of rental apartments.
Through these measures, they will identify people at risk of dying alone and provide them with the necessary preventive services. The Ministry of Health and Welfare recently established a "Recommendation for a tool to determine the risk of dying alone" that can be used to identify people at risk of dying alone.
The recommendation included 10 questions, such as how often people eat, drink, and communicate with others, whether they have someone to help them when they are in trouble, and whether they have a certain level of income.
The plan is to continue supplementing the program through a process of consolidating opinions from local governments. In addition, the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs will play a central role in helping newly participating local governments successfully implement lonely death prevention programs.
The group will be forming a salting group and will provide consulting services to local government officials in July and August.
"It is significant that the government has launched a systematic project to solve the problems of social isolation and lonely deaths," he said. "We will continue to uncover and disseminate excellent examples of measures to prevent lonely deaths, and implement various prevention policies."
"We will do our best to alleviate the issues of isolation and loneliness in Korean society through the development of new products and services," he said.