A Study on the Development of Lifelong Educational Programs for the Promotion of Health and Welfare in Later Life: Centering around the Establishment and Management of Aging Center in University

In aging Korean society, many elderly people have difficulty in the areas of health, economic insecurity, role-loss(both work & spouse), loneliness, and family conflicts. Above all, retirement from work is one of the most important stressful life events having influences an elderly's persons economic & social activities, mental state, health status, and Lifelong educational programs could help the aged cope with these situations in later life. Health and social welfare are commonly recognized as an important value of life. They also have an effect on each other. Most people agree that the promotion of health and social welfare is to take a short-cut toward achieving well-being. Thus we need to develop a substantially integrated program of lifelong education, before and after retirement, for the promotion of health and welfare. Universities have the advantage of practicing lifelong educational programs because they have more material, intellectual, and human resources than any other educational facilities. As a result, the purposed of this study is to suggest life-long educational programs for promoting both health conditions and the level of social welfare by utilizing an aging center affiliated with a university. Specifically, the developmental courses of pre-retirement, learning in retirement, elder-hostels, and the connection between pre and post-retirement educational programs are proposed in this study.

노후 건강 및 복지증진을 위한 평생교육 프로그램개발에 관한 연구: 대학 내 노년학센터(가칭)의 설치운영을 중심으로