KIHASA to Hold the 2025 Health and Social Welfare Review Insight Forum on the Theme of “The Future of Local Health and Welfare Workforce”

• ■The annual “Health and Social Welfare Review Colloquium,” held since 2016, is being held under the new name “Health and Social Welfare Review Insight Forum” this year.

• ■KIHASA President Shin Youngseok said, “Through the Insight Forum, which builds on the achievements of the Colloquium, KIHASA will proactively respond to complex challenges, such as population aging, population decline and the risk of local extinction, seeking policy alternatives and solutions.

• ■The forum will host three presentations and expert discussions on “The Future of the Local Health and Welfare Workforce,” and present awards for outstanding papers published in the Health and Social Welfare Review.

KIHASA will hold the 2025 Health and Social Welfare Review Insight Forum on Tuesday, July 8, from 1:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. at the Korea Press Center’s Press Conference Hall.

This forum is an annual event held by the Health and Social Welfare Review, KIHASA’s flagship academic journal first published in 1981. It was held from 2016 to 2024 under the name Health and Social Welfare Review Colloquium, but starting this year, it has been renamed Health and Social Welfare Review Insight Forum. Its aim is to offer practical policy alternatives through in-depth discussions and public dialogue.

This year’s forum, with the theme “The Future of the Local Health and Welfare Workforce,” will examine the challenges Korea faces as a super-aged society in the health and welfare sectors, with particular attention to the care workforce, and will explore potential policy solutions.

The first session, which will be moderated by Bae Jae-yong (Research Fellow, KIHASA), will feature congratulatory remarks and an awards ceremony for outstanding papers. Joo Eun-sun, Editor-in-Chief of the Health and Social Welfare Review, will open the session with welcoming remarks, followed by congratulatory remarks from KIHASA President Shin Young-seok.

• ■The awards ceremony will recognize outstanding papers as follows: In the health sector, the paper titled “A Critical Review of the Benefit Assessment in Public Hospital Preliminary Feasibility Analysis: Focusing on the Case of Ulsan Medical Center’s Emergency Mortality Reduction Benefit Estimation” by Kim Jin-Hwan (Seoul National University Institute of Health and Environment) and Jung Baekgeun (Gyeongsang National University) has been selected for an award.

• ■In the social sector, the paper “The Impact of Extended Unemployment on Subjective Well-Being among Youth: Mediating Effects of Earnings, Social Capital, and Depression” by Kim KonShik of Kyung Hee University will receive an award.

The second session, chaired by Professor Choi Young-jun of Yonsei University, will feature three thematic presentations followed by discussions.

• ■The presentations will include “Tasks for the Local Health Workforce in an Era of Population Decline” by Professor Yoon Tae-ho of the Pusan National University College of Medicine;  “Policies on the Welfare Workforce for Care Safety Nets in a Super-Aged Society: Current Issues and Challenges” by Senior Research Fellow Kang Hye-gyu of KIHASA; and “Japan’s Local Extinction and Measures to Secure the Health and Welfare Workforce: Trajectories and Prospects” by Professor Lee Sung-han of Matsumoto University School of Business Administration.

• ■The designated discussants are Park Geon-hee (Director of Pyeongchang County Health Center), Uh Yoo-kyung (Associate Research Fellow at KIHASA), Yoon Min-seok (Research Fellow at the Seoul Institute), and Cha Mi-sook (Senior Research Fellow at the Korea Research Institute for Human Settlements). A general discussion with all attendees will follow.

The Review’s Editor-in-Chief, Joo Eun-sun, commented, “Despite the deepening crises of super-aging and local population decline, societal attention to the looming crisis of carers’ remains insufficient. Addressing local care gaps requires a sophisticated understanding of, and finely tuned approach to, the structural issues faced by care workers. We hope that this forum will provide a venue to examine the challenges faced by the local health and welfare workforce amid the super-aging crisis, and contribute to raising awareness of the carers crisis in the public discourse.”

KIHASA President Shin Youngseok remarked, “The Health and Social Welfare Review is a journal that has examined and interpreted Korea’s health and welfare issues from both academic and policy perspectives. Since 2016, it has hosted nine annual colloquia, providing a platform that connects academia with policy through public discussion. This year, the Review is launching the ‘Insight Forum,’ which will replace the Colloquium from now on. The Insight Forum will provide a venue to closely examine health and welfare workforce issues amid the complex changes brought on by aging, population decline, and local extinction, and explore workable policy alternatives.”