<Anchor> A
woman in her 60s, who was a recipient of basic living, died at home, and no one knew about it for several months. As a result, voices are growing that we need to check our social safety net once again.
In particular, in the past, local governments visited people in person to see if there was any difficulty, but nowadays, because of the corona, when we do all those things over the phone and send goods by courier, unexpected loopholes are revealed.
Reporter Seohyun Ahn and Jaeyoung Choi covered this issue together.
<Reporter Ahn Seo-hyun>
On the night of the 25th of last month, A man in his 50s was found dead in a neighborhood in Pocheon, Gyeonggi-do, where old studios are gathered.
[Lee Gwan-Yong/Pocheon Fire Station Paramedic: Upon checking the site, he was already quite corrupt, and I remember that the means and methods of contacting his family were difficult.] It
had been a long time since he died
.
.
[Neighbors: (Family) There was no one.
There are no people coming, and no one comes, as my aunt said.]
There are a number of vulnerable groups here like Mr. A who have lost contact with their families.
As such, this is not the first time in Solitude.
A public funeral held by the Seoul Metropolitan Government for unrelated persons who have no family or whose family refuses to take over the body.
From 434 last year to 622 before the end of the year, this year has nearly 1.5 times increased.
[Jin-Ok Park/Executive Director of'Sharing and Sharing': The reality is that the number of unrelated deaths is increasing rapidly every year.
I would like to say that it would be nice if you would not see the
unrelated
death as someone else's suffering.] The
recent rise of loneliness problem has nothing to do with Corona 19.
The Guardian reported that 700 people died at home without caregivers in London alone in three months starting in March.
I heard as a reason that my family and friends were unable to visit due to the blockade.
The same is true of us, especially as the local governments switched most of the welfare administration to non-face-to-face, the safety net was inevitable.
---
<Reporter Choi Jae-young>
Even the tragedy of
Bang Bae-
dong's hat, there was a non-face-to-face shadow.
Although a son with a developmental disability was classified as capable of working, the ward office was unable to take a closer look at what was going on in the house while monitoring over the phone this year.
For example, Kim, who died, requested mask assistance from the ward office, but the ward office chose a courier rather than door-to-door delivery.
The situation is no different in different regions.
In all 25 autonomous districts in downtown Seoul, face-to-face welfare programs were reduced due to Corona 19, and various events were mostly stopped.
[A ward office staff: (businesses) have been reduced a lot now...
It's not being properly operated.]
[B ward office staff: Since everything is shrinking, all businesses are (phone) safety checks or minimally...]
[C ward office staff: I visited directly because of corona It is a bit difficult to provide services, so I make frequent phone calls.]
In addition, 3,456 facilities per senior citizen to take care of health while asking for regards to each other were closed based on the city of Seoul.
[Yibongsu / Seoul National University, Department of Social Welfare Professor: problems of (a non face-to-face effect) any loneliness disappear because many existing vulnerable gwangyemang likely to be more isolated and alienated summed vulnerable Vulnerable There are likely to be more serious.]
Rather, Experts point out that it is necessary to select the most vulnerable class to strengthen customized door-to-door services and to use neighboring residents, courier service, and delivery service personnel to strengthen the network.
(Video coverage: Lee Byeong-ju, video editing: original, VJ: Jung Young-sam, Kim Cho-ah, Jeong Han-wook, CG: Hong Sung-yong, Choi Jae-young, Lee Ye-jeong, Sung Jae-eun, Jeong Si-won)