The Role of NGOs in Enabling Elderly Activity and Care in the Community: a Case Study of Silver Wings in South Korea.

South Korea is now one of the most rapidly aging societies in the world and meeting the elderly's needs requires a systemic and paradigm change. In this study I argue that community-based care of the elderly in the community should be seen as complementary to, and arguably more fundamental than, enhancing long-term care services per se. Based on qualitative interviews and observations, this paper presents a case study of Silver Wings, the community-based initiative of local non-governmental organization (NGO) Saerom to provide older people's self-help groups with support from HelpAge Korea. The study analyzes the activities and capacities of local NGOs in promoting "aging-in-community" and the findings suggest that such initiatives can certainly contribute to improving well-being and also to reducing long-term care needs. Lessons and challenges of the initiative, as well as policy suggestions, are also discussed.