Establishment of a 'Senior Protection Agency' in Northern Gyeonggi Next Year

Gyeonggi Provincial Government

Gyeonggi Province will establish one new Elder Protection Center in the eastern region of Gyeonggi next year. The ‘AI Eolshin Dundeun Jikimi’ project, which was piloted this year, will be officially adopted and expanded in scale starting next year.

On the 16th, Gyeonggi Province held the ‘2024 Elder Abuse Prevention Committee’ meeting to discuss next year’s plans for preventing and responding to elder abuse, including these details.

Gyeonggi Province decided to establish a new Elder Protection Center due to a significant increase in elder abuse cases in the northern Gyeonggi area, rising from 782 cases in 2022 to 879 cases in 2023.

The Elder Protection Center is a specialized institution for elder abuse prevention that handles elder abuse reports, temporary protection for emergency cases, professional counseling, elder abuse prevention education, promotional activities, and community elder protection. Currently, Gyeonggi Province operates Elder Protection Centers in five cities: Seongnam, Bucheon, Suwon, Uijeongbu, and Goyang.

Additionally, the ‘AI Eolshin Dundeun Jikimi’ project, piloted this year, will be promoted as a full-scale project from next year. The AI Eolshin Dundeun Jikimi system installs AI speakers in homes, enabling emergency calls (to 112 and Gyeonggi Province Elder Protection Centers) through AI voice recognition in case of repeated abuse risk situations. It monitors keywords related to depression and loneliness spoken through the AI speaker, selects high-risk groups, and connects them to professional psychological counseling.

Furthermore, education and campaigns to improve social awareness of the elderly will also be promoted.

According to a recent survey, 66.7% of respondents said that social perception of the elderly is ‘not positive,’ which is more than twice the 31.5% who responded ‘positive.’ Accordingly, Gyeonggi Province plans to take the lead in developing educational content tailored for different groups including elder welfare facilities, adults, youth, and children, and to train instructors to establish an education system.

Kim Hana, Director of the Welfare Bureau of Gyeonggi Province, stated, "We will actively reflect the results discussed at the committee to promote elder abuse prevention projects and strive to prevent and protect against elder abuse within the province."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.