Suwon City Council Member Sa Jung-hee: "Protecting Workers is the Path to Improving Quality of Developmental Disability Welfare"

[News S = Reporter Cheon Ui-hyun] Safety and treatment issues for developmental disability welfare facility workers have come to the table at Suwon Special City Council.

The aim is to find institutional mechanisms to protect workers who are injured by sudden behaviors from service users but receive no protection, drawing from voices from the field.

According to Suwon Special City Council on the 22nd, Council Member Sa Jung-hee (Democratic Party, Maetan 1·2·3·4) held a roundtable discussion on treatment improvement for developmental disability welfare facility workers on the 21st at City Council.

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

Participants shared that workers are frequently exposed to unexpected emergency situations in the process of providing services. There are cases where workers experience physical and mental difficulties due to challenging behaviors or verbal expressions that occur regardless of service users' intentions, and when treatment is necessary, shortages of substitute personnel and treatment cost burdens follow.

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

Council Member Sa stated, "The developmental disability welfare field is at the frontlines of care and support, but there are aspects where the sacrifice and dedication of workers responsible for these roles are not sufficiently supported institutionally. We will carefully examine voices from the field and make active efforts at the council level to connect them to practical policies and support measures."