A Study on the Improvement and Current Status on Child Counseling Works in Korea

우리나라 아동상담사업의 현황과 개선방안

The purpose of this study was to analyze on child counseling service of child welfare policy in Korea. Child counseling services are the most primary services in child welfare. The services have a function of supporting and reinforcing children, so they can grow positively through a desirable relationship with their parents in their family. As child welfare facilities operated politically in Korea, we discussed in this study about the current status of public/private child counseling centers. Through such discussion, we analyzed the current child counseling works in Korea and suggested a future direction of such works. The main results obtained were as follows. First, There were 41 guidance centers for children in Korea, and public guidance centers were 6, and private 35. Second, There were much more guidance centers in Holt Children's Services than in any other centers. Third, In terms of the occurrence of the cases, common children were about 56%, and nonintervention of abuse children were about 13.7% of the total cases. In conclusion, political and systematic support on the establishment of professional public child counseling centers with specialized experts and facilities must be provided in order to activate universal child counseling services for both protection-needed and ordinary children. Furthermore, such political and systematic support must be provided to the establishment and fluent operation of private child counseling centers.