As disasters become larger and part of daily life, demand for psychological recovery support for those who have experienced disasters is rising quickly. But on the ground, there has not been enough specialized staff, and counseling records and case management are often done by hand or in Excel, leading to repeated criticism that there are limits to long-term tracking and systematic management. There are also concerns that such gaps could lead to delayed recovery or additional psychological harm.
To address these problems, researchers at Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) said on the 27th that, together with Korea Trauma Research and Education Institute, Tronics Co., Ltd., Hootron Co., Ltd., Daekeuest Co., Ltd., and Kwangshin University, they developed a disaster psychological recovery support platform that combines artificial intelligence (AI) and information and communications technology (ICT).
The biggest feature of the platform is that it converts the entire disaster psychological recovery support workflow to a digital basis. It moves away from handwritten records and spreadsheet-based management that had been customary in the field, and adds functions such as registration of psychological support workers and management of their activity histories, discovery and registration of cases of disaster-experienced individuals, and provision of tailored, precision psychological assessments and interview guides by life stage (adolescents, guardians, adults, etc.).
The platform applies the nation's first "post-disaster growth scale" and "disaster resilience scale," enabling a more detailed look at the process and changes of psychological recovery after a disaster, beyond simply checking for the presence or absence of symptoms.
Another key is the ongoing management function. The researchers implemented a lifelogging-based assessment function that regularly checks daily status by using Digital Human technology. It is designed to continuously monitor the psychological state of disaster-experienced individuals even in situations where it is difficult for counseling staff to intervene constantly. In addition, they built a remote counseling system linked to psychological support workers nationwide, allowing support without constraints of time and place.
Over the past three years, the researchers conducted in-depth interviews with about 2,000 Koreans who experienced disasters and built a dataset based on disaster-experienced individuals. Along with technology development, they also strengthened the institutional foundation. Starting with standard establishment in 2023, the researchers advanced the reference architecture of the disaster psychological support service system and completed the final revision in 2025. The standard was also selected as a "2025 Telecommunications Technology Association (TTA) Excellent Standard."
In fact, when an elementary school student was killed in Gwanjeo 2-dong, Daejeon, in Feb. last year, the "five types of life-stage disaster psychological recovery counseling logs" developed by the researchers were deployed and used for 11 days to support psychological stabilization for bereaved family members and witnesses. In addition, in a demonstration over two years with about 50 workers affiliated with disaster psychological support centers nationwide, it recorded an average satisfaction score of more than 80 points.
Director Ju Hye-seon of Korea Trauma Research and Education Institute said, "This is a useful platform for effectively matching and managing experts and disaster-experienced individuals in disaster psychological support, and for comprehensively identifying and sharing recovery support resources."
Oh Seung-hun, principal researcher at ETRI's Artificial Intelligence Convergence Research Laboratory, said, "This platform goes beyond simple technology development to serve as core infrastructure that strengthens the national safety net protecting people's lives and mental health for the AI era," adding, "We will accelerate field adoption through cooperation with relevant ministries."
Going forward, the researchers plan to continue reflecting the opinions of practitioners and workers at disaster psychological recovery support centers and to gradually advance the platform's functions and performance so more people can use it reliably.