Press Release

Despite Heavy Load of Caregiving, Korea's Disability Policy and Family Policy Both Lack Support for Families of Persons with Disabilities

  • Date 2022-07-13
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The Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs (KIHASA) has published Health and Welfare Issue & Focus, No. 424, "Support for Families of Persons with Disabilities: An International Comparison and Its Implications for Policy." The study on which this brief is based was led by Yi Min-Gyeong, associate research fellow at the Center for Research on Welfare for Persons with Disabilities at KIHASA.


Yi said, "Different countries have different backgrounds against which their family policies have grown. What they all have in common is social support for families of persons with disabilties. Such support is based on their special needs and their families'," adding that disability policy should be based on the needs not only of disabled people but of their families as well.


In Korea, families of persons with disabilities take on a heavy load of caregiving responsibilities, but Korea's disability policy lacks support for families as caregivers of persons with disabilities. Moreover, in Korea's family policy, support for persons with disabilities is still in its developing phase. Also, discussions ongoing in Korea as to economic support for family careiving such as child allowance do not address enough of economic support that takes disability into account. Various schemes of institutional support, including family care leave, family care days and reduced work hours, have yet to attain to full implementation. 


Yi emphasized on ensuring that the health and wellbeing of family caregivers receive proactive support. Among the ways of doing this, she suggested, is by switching current programs of support for families of persons with disabilities to a set of universal programs that run with relaxed age and disability-type criteria.


Click Research in Brief 2022-11, "Support for Families of Persons with Disabilities: An International Comparison and Its Implications for Policy," for the full translation of this issue of Health and Welfare Issue & Focus.







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