Lonely death refers to a phenomenon of people with no relatives dying alone and remaining undiscovered for a long period of time. (image: Korea Bizwire)
SEOUL, Feb. 9 (Korea Bizwire) — The Seoul Metropolitan Government said Wednesday it is using smart plugs to monitor single-person households with a risk of “lonely death” 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
A smart plug is a device that is connected to the electrical outlets that power televisions, microwaves and other commonly used home appliances. It is used to measure the amount of energy consumption.
If there are no changes in the amount of electric power being used, the local residents’ center or Seoul Welfare Foundation calls the household to check on safety.
If the individual cannot be reached, a monitoring team is sent to the home.
Previously, the monitoring program was only available on weekdays and operated by local community centers.
Starting in October last year, however, the monitoring program was expanded to operate 24 hours a day through the foundation.
As of last year, the city had installed smart plugs for 4,017 single-person households with a risk of solitary death and provides a 24-hour monitoring service for 3,213 households that have agreed to monitoring at night and on holidays.
Between Oct. 20 of last year and Jan. 30 of this year, the smart plugs detected risks from 5,725 households.
Phone calls and text messages were sent 6,759 times and teams were deployed 33 times.
M. H. Lee (mhlee@koreabizwire.com)
