Councilor Sa Jung-hee: "Protecting Workers is the Path to Enhancing Quality of Disability Welfare"

[News S=Reporter Cheon Eui-hyeon] The safety and working conditions of employees at developmental disability welfare facilities have been brought to the table at Suwon Special Metropolitan City Council.

The aim is to find institutional measures from voices in the field to protect workers who are injured by unexpected behaviors from service users but remain unprotected.

According to Suwon Special Metropolitan City Council on the 22nd, Councilor Sa Jung-hee (Democratic Party, Maetan 1, 2, 3, and 4 districts) held a roundtable discussion on improving working conditions for employees at developmental disability welfare facilities on the 21st at City Council.

The roundtable was attended by nine directors of developmental disability welfare facilities, Suwon City's Director of Disability Welfare, and staff from the Disability Facility Support Team.

Participants agreed that workers are frequently exposed to unexpected situations while providing services. They noted that employees face physical and mental difficulties due to challenging behaviors or verbal expressions exhibited by service users regardless of intent, and that in situations requiring treatment, they face additional burdens from lack of substitute staff and treatment costs.

Participants unanimously agreed that such situations should not be viewed as the fault of specific service users, but rather institutional measures are needed to protect workers and improve their working environment based on understanding the characteristics of developmental disabilities.

Councilor Sa stated, "The developmental disability welfare field is at the frontline of care and support, but there is an aspect where the sacrifice and dedication of workers fulfilling that role are not sufficiently backed by institutional systems," and added, "We will carefully examine voices from the field and make active efforts at the council level to connect them with effective policies and support measures."