A Study of Specialized Personnel System for long-term Care Insurance in Korea

Abstract

Korea is expected to have a steady increase in the number of elderly people who are in need of care and special care such as dementia and stroke, as the number of aging population is increased. Therefore, to stabilize supply and demand of long-term care professionals and to improve the quality of long-term care services, it is imperative that measures are taken to train long-term care professionals and diversify the care personnel system. The purpose of this study is to propose a new qualification system for securing the expertise of long-term care professionals and young long-term care professionals in Korea. This study examines both Korean and German case studies on long-term care professionals, including related literatures, regulations and statistical data. It examines the situation of long-term care professionals and their education system in Korea, and also explores the system of long-term care worker and their training system in Germany. For the training of professional care personnel, it is necessary to classify long-term care worker into care worker manager as professional workforce and care worker. Care worker manager get national certifications when they successfully complete a care curriculum at college or university where professional education is available. For this purpose, long-term care-related curriculum for social worker, health and nurse care is opened. Their main tasks include the provisions of basic long-term care services as well as care service guidance for care worker, case managements and counseling support. The introduction of a professional care worker training system enables the provision of high-quality services through the acquisition of long-term care professionalism. They are required for the increasingly diverse and complex long-term care. Also, the divisions of long-term care tasks can help relieve the burden of long-term care workers and improve their treatment of labor. This specialization of the long-term care services can also contribute solving the current aging problem of the care workers by expanding the participation opportunity of the young people, and improving their negative images and treatments.