Anyone who wants to set up an institution to train home helpers must report it to the mayor, county head or district head, and the standards for the facilities, staff and operation of home helper training institutions and the reporting procedure are set by Ministry of Health and Welfare ordinance (Article 39-3 of the act).

On elder abuse, the national and local governments must prevent elder abuse and set up an emergency line that can take abuse reports at any time (Article 39-4), and must establish senior protection agencies dedicated to preventing abuse and protecting victims (Article 39-5). Medical personnel and the heads or staff of senior welfare facilities who learn of elder abuse in their work must report it to a senior protection agency or an investigative agency (Article 39-6). The Minister of Health and Welfare, a provincial governor, or a mayor, county head or district head may, when needed, have officials or senior welfare counselors enter senior welfare facilities, older people's homes and their workplaces to investigate or ask questions about assault or injury against older people (Article 39-10).

My views on the current Elderly Welfare Act are as follows, starting with older people's health and medical costs and how to improve them. In our rapidly aging society, many older people suffer from chronic or age-related diseases. But because many are poor, they find large medical bills hard to bear. This seriously threatens their health. I think revising the related detailed laws to improve this is urgent.

The second issue is the size of pension payments and how to improve them. To secure income for low-income older people, Korea has paid an old-age allowance since 1991 to older people aged 70 or over who receive livelihood assistance. But it has done little for older people who face real economic hardship. The senior pension should therefore be raised to a level that actually secures income.

I also want to suggest how to improve home-based senior welfare facilities. Current home-based facilities include home helper dispatch, day care and short-term care facilities. But as the older population keeps growing and the number of older people needing long-term care rises sharply, these facilities are still far too few. They should therefore be gradually expanded. Home help services should also be taught more professionally so that older people can find stability and live healthy lives in their communities.

To add: a 2011 revision removed geriatric hospitals from senior medical welfare facilities, leaving only nursing homes for the elderly and group homes, and long-term care hospitals are now governed by the Medical Service Act. Senior protection agencies are in Article 39-5 and the duty to report abuse in Article 39-6, and article numbers have changed through many revisions. Since the Long-Term Care Insurance Act took effect in July 2008, long-term care insurance has paid most of the cost of care facilities, and the old-age allowance and senior pension in the paper became the basic old-age pension (2008) and then, in July 2014, the basic pension.