Taking disabled out of institutions sees a backlash

Social Affairs

Published: 09 Jun. 2022, 05:00

Taking disabled out of institutions sees a backlash

Park Kyung-seok, a representative of the Solidarity Against Disability Discrimination (SADD), and activists head toward the Seoul Metropolitan Council from Hoehyeon Station in central Seoul on June 2. [NEWS1]

Parents from 45 associations of people with disabilities knelt in front of Seoul City Hall on May 28 to protest a proposed ordinance that would move people with disabilities from institutions into local communities.

Lee Woo-yeol was one parent who knelt. His 45-year-old daughter, Lee Hae-kyung, has developmental disabilities, and has lived in a facility for the disabled for over 20 years. She knelt beside him, saying repeatedly, “Dad, I’m scared!”

The ordinance in question was proposed by Seoul Metropolitan Council member Seo Youn-ki of the Democratic Party (DP) on May 25.

It would provide community-based homes for the disabled so they can live independently in society rather than in public or private institutions.

The ordinance would make it mandatory for the mayor of Seoul to establish a basic plan for de-institutionalization of the disabled every five years. It allows the mayor to offer public housing to the disabled and expand other support services.

De-institutionalization is an established policy in Korea. According to the Ministry of Health and Welfare's roadmap for the de-institutionalization of people with disabilities announced last year, the opening of new residential facilities for the disabled are prohibited. It aims to gradually abolish such facilities and already the number of residents of such facilities in Seoul is shrinking. It decreased by 28.7 percent from 2013 -- when the Seoul Metropolitan Government kicked off its de-institutionalization plan -- through 2021, according to data provided by the city government.

Opponents of the bill are mainly concerned about how disabled people like Ms. Lee can live independently. They say that forcing the disabled out of institutions would force responsibility onto their families.

In the past three months alone, there have been three cases in which parents killed children with disabilities.

On May 23, a woman in her 60s in Incheon murdered her daughter, who was severely disabled and unsuccessfully attempted suicide.

On the same day, a mother in her 40s and her 6-year-old son, who was developmentally disabled, fell to their deaths from an apartment in Seoul.

In March, a mother in her 50s with terminal cancer in Siheung, Gyeonggi, tried to commit suicide but failed after killing a son in his 20s who had developmental disabilities.

“We visited 20 residential facilities [for the disabled] across the country but were unable to get admitted because they were already full,” said a 66-year-old surnamed Park, who has a child with developmental disabilities. "I even once sent my child to a psychiatric ward."

Kim Hyun-ah, a spokesperson for the National Association of Parents of Disabled Residents, argues it is impossible to ask everyone to move from institutional facilities.

Organizations that approve of the legislation include the disabled advocacy group Solidarity Against Disability Discrimination (SADD).

“The Seoul Metropolitan Council should pass the ordinance on deinstitutionalization so that people with disabilities can live together in communities with non-disabled people,” said Park Kyeong-seok, a spokesperson for the SADD. The group has been holding rush-hour subway protests since last December to promote the bill.

"Not every person needs to be isolated from society because they have a severe disability," said Kim Shin-ae, head of the National Federation for Parents with Disabilities. "Instead of just opposing the idea, we now have to consider what each person with disability needs."

BY LEE SU-MIN, SEO JI-EUN [seo.jieun1@joongang.co.kr]