• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.212-227
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• 2020

Purpose: This study presents the process of designing workbooks for advance care planning appropriate for the Korean cultural setting and describes actual case studies. Methods: This study focused on single inductive case studies of the utilization of an advance care planning workbook and recruited individual participants. Results: The workbook for adolescents contained six sessions and the workbook for children contained seven sessions. The workbook sessions led to four major discoveries: 1) considering the Korean cultural context, discussions on life and death must be held indirectly; 2) the role of the counselor as a supporter is crucial for the workbook to be effective; 3) the workbook must be accessible regardless of the seriousness of the illness; and 4) patients must be able to make their own choice between the workbook versions for children and adolescents. Six facilitating factors improved engagement: 1) the role of the counselor as a supporter; 2) building trust with the patient; 3) affirming freedom of expression on topics the patient wished to avoid talking about; 4) having discussions on what private information to keep secret and to whom the information can be disclosed; 5) discovering and regularly discussing relevant topics; and 6) regular communication and information-sharing with the patient's medical service providers. Conclusion: It is necessary to build on actual case studies regarding workbooks for children and adolescents in order to expand the usage of these workbooks to all relevant medical institutions in Korea.

• Physical Therapy Korea
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.87-91
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• 2023

Most advanced countries that are members of the World Physiotherapy have established a 4-year education system or specialized graduate school system for physical therapists based on national standards. They have also expanded their laws and systems to provide physical therapists with the autonomy and independence to offer services in their clinics. However, compared with developed countries in North America and Europe, there are issues with the autonomy and independence of physical therapists in Korea related to national regulations. Social status and recognition of the profession are also lagging. Korea is expected to become a super-aged society by 2025. To reduce the financial burden of healthcare and welfare on the government, it is necessary to extend the time spent by older adults on independent activities and minimize their time spent using medical services. To achieve this goal and maximize the active life of older adults, a plan to efficiently use licensed physical therapists in the country should be prepared. Korea should increase the license utilization rate of physical therapists to reduce waste at the national level and increase the professional hope of the younger generations of physical therapists. To create a healthcare policy focusing on the use of physical therapy personnel, similar to that in advanced countries, it is necessary to unify educational systems and produce excellent physical therapists. Providing professional autonomy can help physical therapists develop a sense of job satisfaction. Outstanding talent will choose physical therapy as a profession if they can see hope for their future careers, and if physical therapy services in Korea are similar to those delivered in advanced countries, physical therapy in Korea can develop into a healthcare service that people desire.

• 한국사회정책
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.97-129
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• 2013

This study aims to investigate causes of the emergence of so-called 'family-care workers' in the Long-term Care Insurance system in Korea. The LTCI system introduced in 2008 financially support the utilization of formal care services for the eligible elderly with care needs by paying for services of their care workers. Interestingly, 38.4 percent of payments for the in-home services were claimed by family members registered as qualified long-term care workers in 2012. We interviewed ten family care workers in depth and analyzed the needs of the aged and their families to explain the emergence of family care workers. The emergence of family-care workers is an inevitable result of choice by family members who face a dual burden of living and caring; be the additional choice following discharge the duty to support the elderly; be the alternative choice to fulfill unaccepted needs for services. These results suggest the needs for a comprehensive public provision of both income and social service support for the aged and an introduction of financial support for family care complementing the formal care support in the LTCI in Korea.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.544-552
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• 2019

The purpose of this study was to find concrete measures to improve the subjective health level, happiness and quality of life of the elderly according to economic level and to propose social and policy alternatives accordingly. As a research method, 63,929 elderly people aged 65 or older were surveyed using the Community Health Survey (Indicator Bank) _v09, and the frequency of health use by economic level, subjective health level, euphoria and quality of life Analysis and Chi square analysis and independent t-test. Multi variate logistic regression analysis was performed with subjective health level as a dependent variable and multiple linear regression analysis was performed to determine the factors affecting euphoria and quality of life. The results of the study are as follows. In the case of recipients, medical use was lower than that of non-recipients, lower education level, female age of 75 years or older, and less stress, In case of present or past recipients, the result of non - receipt increased as the subjective health level was worse, and the non - recipient had higher euphoria and quality of life. As a result, there is a need for alternatives to increase opportunities for medical use among the recipients, with particular attention being paid to women and elderly people over 75 years old. It is expected to be used as a basic data to effectively improve the health promotion, happiness and quality of life of the elderly people of low income group.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.39-51
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• 2008

The objectives of this study were to analyze the socio-economical factors related to smoking and drinking behaviors using the Korea Welfare Panel data. The key variables were sex, age, frequency of health and medical facilities visit, subjective health level, smoking level, drinking level, depression symptoms, and low income level. Since the health variables in the Welfare Panel data were limited, the analysis was exploratory. In male population of those older than 30 years old, low income group people were more likely to smoke cigarettes than the general income population. In the result of the Chi square analysis, the smoking rate showed significantly different relationships with the different age groups, gender and income level. According to the descriptive analysis, persons with low income level were more likely to experience health risk behaviors and showed more medical service utilization. The utilization of the local public health centers was 4.6% for the Bow income level and 1% for the general level. The higher smoking rate was associated with the younger age, and the lower income. The smoking rate in the age category from 20 to 29 was 23.3% for the general level and 25% for the low income level. On the other hand, the drinking rate was even higher in the general families. The rates of non use of alcohol was 36.7% in the general families and 58.4% for the low income families. For both smoking and high risk drinking issues, demographic and sociological variables such as sex, age, education levels and income levels were analyzed, and there wer significant relationships. Health risk factors were serious for males, with age groups of 20's and 30's, lower education level, and in a low income family. In general, females were more unhealthy. The rates of smoking and drinking were higher in the low income level. Even in the health and nutrition survey results in 2005, persons in the low income class were experiencing poorer health in health level or the degree of action restriction. Since the effects of the health promotion could not be measured in a short period of time, it has not been easy to create the basis for the substantial effects. Factors related to health risks needs to be continuously studied using data from diverse field.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.1-14
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• 2003

Objectives: This paper introduces need and supply level of rural mental health care service and especially focuses on the evaluation for the community mental health programs of Public Health Centers(PHCs) in rural areas as the facilities for primary mental health care. Methods: We defined the need as prevalance rate and service utilization rate, for which reviewed the results of the epidemiological study of mental disorders using Korean Composite International Diagnostic Interview surveyed on a nationwide scale in 2001. Supply was appraised in terms of psychiatric beds and primary mental heath care facilities such as private psychiatric clinics, facilities for social rehabilitation, PHCs running community mental health programs. For this, we reveiwed a variety of annual reports related mental health published by Ministry of Health and Welfare. To evaluate the community mental health programs of PHCs in rural areas, we selected. randomly samples out of the 3rd community health plans including the contents of community mental health programs, which submitted by 89 rural counties and 44 cities mixed with rural areas, and used the program's guideline established by central government as a standard. Results: Prevalence rates of major psychiatric diseases such as schizophrenia, alcoholism, major depression, anxiety disorder were higher in rural area than in urban area and 8.9% of psychiatric patients in both areas stayed at homes contacted with mental health manpower more than one time during the last year. Psychiatric beds were sufficiently supplied, but urban area had less beds than rural area contrary to general health care service. Psychiatric clinics were supplied very insufficiently in rural areas and PHCs bridged the gap instead. However rural PHCs got less financial support for community mental health programs from higher positioned agencies than urban PHCs. Rural community health programs not supported hardly worked out. Conclusions: Central government should consider a special policy for rural primary mental health care, because private psychiatric clinics can't be introduced in rural areas due to demand-deficiency and the financial independence of rural counties was very vulnerable.