[All] Good news spread far and wide~~ Min Yoongi Treatment Center~

[My Daily = Reporter Park Seo-yeon] BTS member Suga (real name Min Yoon-gi) has made an unprecedented donation.

On the 23rd, Severance Hospital announced, "Severance Hospital and BTS' Suga will establish a specialized treatment center to support the treatment and social independence of patients with autism spectrum disorder."

Severance Hospital held a groundbreaking ceremony for the 'Min Yoon-ki Treatment Center' on the first floor of Jejungwan on this day to treat children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder. This center will support the mental health of children and adolescents through language, psychological, and behavioral therapies, and will operate various programs that link clinical and research.

Even while promoting with BTS, Suga has consistently engaged in charity work and has shown a continued interest in mental health, psychological and behavioral issues, and especially depression in adolescents. He has sought ways to help through his talent and ability in music.

Last November, Suga had the opportunity to communicate with Professor Chun Geun-ah of the Department of Pediatrics at Severance Hospital, an authority in the field of pediatric psychiatry. Through several meetings since then, he learned that patients with autism spectrum disorder require customized treatment that fits their life cycle, but that this is difficult to achieve with existing short-term therapeutic interventions. He also agreed that in order to bring about positive changes in the symptoms of autism spectrum disorder, it is necessary to establish a specialized treatment center that can provide mid- to long-term treatment for more than 10 years, and so announced his intention to donate 5 billion won to Severance Hospital. This is the largest donation ever made by an artist, not only to Severance Children's Hospital but also to the entire Yonsei Medical Center.

Since then, Professor Chun and Suga have discussed the establishment of a treatment center and social skills training using music for children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder from the end of last year to the beginning of this year. Based on this, they developed the 'MIND' program, a social skills group program that combines musical content with existing social skills training programs.

The MIND program is an acronym that contains the meaning of 'enhancing interaction and sensory experiences through music (Music), encountering opportunities to form social relationships and communicate (Interaction), learning the process of naturally forming relationships through a community (Network), and learning about a society that respects individual diversity and gets along together (Diversity).' Children who participate in this program play instruments, sing songs, write to music, and express their emotions and thoughts through music and writing.

From March to June of this year, Suga spent weekends meeting children with autism spectrum disorder and participated in the development of the program. He played instruments such as the guitar and encouraged the children to match the rhythm and harmony, interact with music, and expand their emotional expression. He even taught the children to play the instruments themselves. As the program progressed, the children’s emotional and verbal expressions significantly increased, and their social skills were trained through collaborating with or waiting for other children. Oh (10 years old) and Lee (12 years old), who did not respond actively when receiving only speech therapy, showed their talent in choosing their own instruments and playing them in time. They also showed a variety of emotional expressions during the ensemble. Kim (18 years old), who plays the saxophone, had little verbal or emotional expression, but expressed the emotions that arose during the process of collaborating with other children through facial expressions and responded to the therapist’s interest and praise.

This program has been shown to be effective in helping children with autism spectrum disorder with limited language ability form social relationships.

In the future, the Min Yoon-ki Treatment Center plans to further develop the MIND program and establish a self-reliant music project model. In order to continuously operate the program, the training process for experts in each treatment field will also be systematized to strengthen the program’s sustainability and expertise.

When the construction of the Min Yoon-ki Treatment Center is completed in September, regular program sessions will be expanded and newly established. Various treatment sessions will be operated, starting with social skills training using music for patients with autism spectrum disorder and developmental disabilities. Existing ABA (Applied Behavioral Analysis) and speech therapy will also be expanded. In addition, clinical research, academic paper presentations, and program manual publications will be promoted to objectively prove the effectiveness of the MIND program.

Professor Chun Geun-ah said, “Beyond the financial support, I would like to express my sincere gratitude for the sincere talent donation and volunteer work that Suga has shown over the past several months. I have been deeply impressed by Suga’s consistent sincerity and intellectual attitude.” He added, “The ultimate goal of the Min Yoon-ki Treatment Center and the MIND program is to help children with autism spectrum disorder grow into independent beings and healthy members of society through the medium of music, and to eliminate prejudice against patients with autism spectrum disorder and improve awareness of the disability through this.”

Suga said, “Through the program preparation and volunteer work with Professor Cheon Geun-ah over the past seven months, I have deeply felt that music can be a valuable channel for expressing emotions and communicating with the world.” He added, “I am very grateful and happy that I was able to participate in the treatment process for children with autism spectrum disorder, and I will continue to work hard so that more children can become members of our society.”