Siblings surnamed Lee in their 60s, living in Ulsan and Daegu, cared for their mother in her 80s, who was diagnosed with dementia, for 10 years. While continuing their jobs, the two had to travel from each one's residence to Busan, where their mother lives, to handle counseling and checkups and to find treatment and care services. As the dementia progressed, the physical and mental burden that the patient and family had to bear grew not only during treatment but also in the caregiving process.
Even as the number of people with dementia and their families continues to grow, operating conditions for the Dementia Relief Center, the public infrastructure for dementia management, were found to be diverging by region. Nationwide, the operating support budget decreased, and the pace of staffing increases did not keep up with the growth rate of dementia patients. In some areas, staffing even declined.
The Dementia Relief Center is community-based dementia management infrastructure that the government expanded nationwide in 2017 as it pushed the national responsibility for dementia policy. It is where dementia patients and families go within their communities to receive counseling and screening, case management, family support, and links to care services; there are currently 256 centers nationwide.
On the 15th, according to data from the Ministry of Health and Welfare obtained by lawmaker Seo Mihwa of the Health and Welfare Committee from ChosunBiz, the estimated number of dementia patients in Korea increased 21.7%, from 785,089 in 2021 to 955,585 in 2025.
During the same period, staffing at Dementia Relief Centers rose only 5.9%, from 4,752 to 5,032. By contrast, the budget for the center operation support program decreased 12.6% (21.7 billion won), from 172.3 billion won in 2021 to 150.6 billion won in 2025.
Staffing changes by region diverged further. In Seoul, the number rose by 51, from 541 in 2021 to 592 in 2025. In Incheon, it increased from 274 to 303; in Gyeonggi, from 845 to 916; and in South Gyeongsang, from 370 to 436.
By contrast, in Busan the number fell by 12, from 327 to 315; in North Chungcheong, from 207 to 202; and in South Chungcheong, from 308 to 295. South Jeolla saw the largest decline, dropping by 73 (20.7%), from 353 to 280.
Budgets also varied by region. Compared with 2021, the 2025 operating support budget in South Chungcheong fell 25.4%, the largest decrease. Incheon (-21.5%), North Chungcheong (-18.7%), North Gyeongsang (-17.8%), and Gangwon (-17.7%) also recorded decreases in the high 10% range. Seoul rose 8.3% over the same period.
The work of Dementia Relief Centers is not limited to dementia counseling and early screening. They broadly handle pre- and post-diagnosis management and care, including patient registration and management, case management, support for test costs, provision of caregiving supplies, and connecting to community resources.
By the end of 2025, the cumulative number of people registered at Dementia Relief Centers nationwide totaled 4,825,082. Over the same period, cumulative preliminary screenings were 10,169,573; diagnostic tests, 765,794; case management, 189,561 people; caregiving supplies support, 390,738; and community resource linkages, 336,305 cases, it was found.
Experts emphasized that a key goal of dementia management policy should be to maximize the time patients receive drug treatment, cognitive intervention therapy, and care while living at home or in the community and to delay the timing of admission to long-term care facilities.
They said slowing the progression of the patient's disease and extending the period of community living is important not only for the quality of life of patients and families but also from the perspective of managing social expense.
According to the 2023 dementia epidemiological and status survey released by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the annual management expense per dementia patient also differed by about 14.04 million won: 17.339 million won for patients living in the community and 31.382 million won for those living in long-term care facilities or hospitals.
In a comparison by the Korean Dementia Association of family burdens before and after the implementation of the national responsibility for dementia policy, the share of families who quit their jobs to care for a dementia patient decreased from 27% in 2012 to 14% in 2018, and the share who reduced working hours fell from 51% to 33%.
The Korean Dementia Association suggested that, as Dementia Relief Centers have helped reduce families' caregiving burdens and contributed to community dementia management, their expertise should be strengthened rather than their functions scaled back.
Choi Hojin, a neurology professor at Hanyang University Guri Hospital (planning director of the Korean Dementia Association), said, "Dementia Relief Centers are a rare example of public infrastructure that has been institutionalized nationwide and is operating in the field," adding, "Rather than scaling back the centers' functions or using them as infrastructure for other welfare programs, we should leverage their expertise, and in small and midsize cities, farming and fishing villages, and medically underserved areas, we should further strengthen their role."
He said, "We need operating guidelines to prevent Dementia Relief Center staff from being excessively assigned to general health promotion projects or integrated care administrative work," and, "We need to upgrade the performance evaluation framework for Dementia Relief Centers and establish region-specific models."
Lawmaker Seo Mihwa said, "Strengthening the institutional responsibility for dementia, one of the biggest challenges in an aging society, is a task we can no longer avoid," adding, "We will do our best to strengthen infrastructure so that people can enjoy daily life in the community even with dementia, and to ensure life after dementia can be lived with dignity."