노인복지시설종사자에 관한 법적 고찰 - 사회복지사와 요양보호사를 중심으로 -

Senior welfare facilities refer to establishments that are run by the national government, local governments or private organizations to improve the quality of life of the elderly and provide them with a wide variety of social welfare service. Our country's senior welfare law doesn't include any definition of senior welfare facilities, and the social welfare service act that is the parent law of social welfare service involving senior welfare service defines social welfare facilities as “facilities that are installed to perform social work.”There are neither established hiring regulations nor evaluation for employees of senior welfare facilities, which comes into question. Anybody who is certified just for form's sake can be hired, or each welfare center hires employees according to its own hiring specifications. Lately, the number of senior welfare centers is rapidly on the rise along with the growing elderly population, and there are various problems with the qualifications and qualities of their employees, which results in detracting from welfare service that must be provided for users. It denotes that the rights of users aren't properly be protected, and the matter of the qualifications and qualities of employees should consequently be taken seriously. In order to provide users with better service, there must be strict qualification requirements for employees. In terms of their qualities, not only those who have committed a sexual crime in social welfare centers but those who have done the same outside social welfare centers and who have infringed on elderly people's rights must not be allowed to get a position with those facilities as well. Thus, how to prevent the quality of service from declining should carefully be considered from diverse angles.