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Busan to Launch Nationwide First Senior Job Program Where Seniors Care for Fellow Seniors, “Mind Nutrition Senior Educational Play Kit Task Force,” Next Year

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Busan Metropolitan City Mayor Park Heong-joon announced that starting in 2026, the city will implement the nation’s first senior employment program, the “Mind Nutrition Senior Educational Play Kit Task Force.”

As aging deepens and social relationships weaken, many older adults face complex challenges such as isolation, depression, and cognitive decline. In particular, depression among seniors increases the risks of suicide and dementia, making early intervention critically important.

The “Mind Nutrition Senior Educational Play Kit Program” is a project in which seniors care for the cognitive, emotional, and physical health of their peers, and serves as a prevention-focused, integrated care senior employment model.

Under the program, participating seniors will visit places where older adults spend their daily lives—such as senior centers, welfare facilities, long-term care hospitals, and private homes—and provide customized programs focused on play, cognitive stimulation, and storytelling using senior educational play kits.

Notably, the program is distinguished from existing senior employment initiatives in that it is based on a “warm community where seniors care for seniors,” utilizing the life experience, empathy, and communication skills that older adults have accumulated throughout their lives as local care resources.

Next year’s program will involve 20 senior job participants. After completing job training by March next year, participants will begin full-scale activities starting in April.

Ahead of the program’s launch, a donation ceremony will be held today (the 23rd) at 2:00 p.m. in the City Council’s main conference room on the second floor, where Hana International will donate senior educational play kit sets worth a total of KRW 16 million to the Institute of Senior Life Science.

This initiative is expected to serve as a model of public–private cooperation in which corporations, nonprofit organizations, and local governments jointly empathize with issues surrounding seniors’ mental health and work together to develop solutions, thereby strengthening the local care foundation and fostering a warmer community.

The Institute of Senior Life Science, which will participate as the implementing organization for next year’s program, is a specialized institution with extensive experience in developing and applying cognitive and emotional programs for seniors in the field. It possesses accumulated expertise and operational capacity in related areas, including research on senior educational play kits and the training of instructors.

Busan Metropolitan City plans to pilot the program in Yeonje-gu next year, analyze its operational performance and effectiveness, and then consider whether to expand it to other districts and counties. The program will begin full-scale operation in April next year.

The program will be conducted once a week, for a total of up to 16 sessions, with each session lasting approximately 60 minutes. Depending on the condition and characteristics of participants, it will be operated in either individual or small-group formats.

The operational process consists of a rapport-building stage (sessions 1–4), a middle stage focused on cognitive, emotional, and physical activities (sessions 5–12), and a concluding stage centered on storytelling and training (sessions 13–16). Senior educational play kits will be used throughout all stages to encourage active participation.

Through natural conversation, play, storytelling, and thinking exercises, the program aims to help seniors regain opportunities for communication and interaction that may have diminished while living alone, while simultaneously providing emotional stability and cognitive stimulation.

Institutions located in Yeonje-gu that wish to apply for next year’s program, as well as local residents of Yeonje-gu aged 65 or older, may submit advance applications by phone to the Institute of Senior Life Science starting January 5 next year (☎ 051-624-5025).

Not only seniors living alone, but also family members who are concerned about their parents’ emotional or cognitive health may apply after consultation.

Jeong Tae-gi, Director General of the Social Welfare Bureau of Busan Metropolitan City, stated, “This project goes beyond routine check-ins to support comprehensive health care that includes cognitive and emotional well-being and the restoration of social relationships. It will establish itself as a Busan-style, prevention-oriented integrated care senior employment model.” He added, “By preventing social isolation, fostering warm communities, and enabling meaningful social participation and the creation of quality jobs for seniors at the same time, we expect this initiative to help make Busan a city of happy later lives.”