Do not go gentle into that good night, old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light, though wise men at their end know dark is right, because their words had forked no lightning they, do not go gentle into that good night.
Seoul ramps up elder care initiatives to combat isolation, digital exclusion
Seoul Active Senior Center in Dobong District, Seoul / Courtesy of Seoul Metropolitan Government
By Jhoo Dong-chan
Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon announced Monday a comprehensive restructuring of the capital's senior welfare infrastructure, combining an aggressive rollout of neighborhood leisure centers with streamlined transit options designed to shield elderly residents from tech-driven isolation.
Speaking at the Seodaemun Senior Welfare Center, Oh detailed the city's newly minted "Senior Vitality Project." The initiative aims to counter the growing epidemic of loneliness among the elderly by modernizing municipal recreation. Under the plan, Seoul will build 120 neighborhood wellness stations by 2030, alongside two regional megacomplexes dedicated to continuing education, physical fitness and community organizing.
The physical expansion coincides with a behavioral health push. The city is developing a standardized social integration curriculum scheduled for deployment across all municipal senior centers later this year, specifically engineered to alleviate anxiety and clinical depression among vulnerable seniors who live alone.
The mayor also unveiled structural upgrades to the city’s highly successful "Donghaeng Onda" taxi service, a subsidized mobility program aimed at bridging the digital divide for a demographic largely excluded from smartphone-based ride-hailing networks. While more than 60 percent of Seoul residents in their 20s and 40s rely on mobile applications to secure transit, city data shows that 80 percent of residents over 60 still flag down roaming taxis on foot — a practice that poses severe health risks during extreme summer heat waves and heavy monsoons.
To lower the barrier to entry, the city has integrated the dispatch service directly with its primary civic hotline, "02-120." Beginning Monday, senior citizens can bypass specialized apps or separate phone lines entirely, securing a zero-fare ride via a standard phone conversation with a municipal operator.
The dispatch program has handled more than 44,000 rides since its inception last July, with monthly volume surging from fewer than 1,000 trips at launch to nearly 7,000 by mid-2026. To maximize awareness, the metropolitan government is distributing 15,000 instructional brochures across 95 welfare centers, branch offices of the Senior Citizens Association, and local bank branches.
"Ensuring that every senior can maintain vitality and joy in their daily life is a core pillar of our city's governance," Oh said. "We will continue to refine these highly localized policies by listening to seniors directly on the ground."
This article was published with the assistance of generative AI and edited by The Korea Times.