BTS Suga to join hands with Severance to build Min Yoongi Treatment Center...5 Billion Donations
Jun 23, 2025
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Severance Hospital held a groundbreaking ceremony for the treatment of children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder on the first floor of the Jejunggwan on the 23rd. It will support the mental health of children and adolescents, including speech, psychology, and behavioral therapy, and run various programs linking clinical and research.
Suga is said to have been constantly interested in mental health, psychological and behavioral problems, especially adolescent depression, along with constant sharing activities even during his BTS activities. He has been looking for ways to help through his talent and ability of music.
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In addition, he expressed his intention to donate 5 billion won to Severance Hospital, agreeing that it is necessary to build a specialized treatment center that can support treatment in the mid- to long-term for more than 10 years in order to make a positive change in the symptoms of autism spectrum disorder. It is the highest donation ever delivered by artists throughout Yonsei Medical Center as well as Severance Children's Hospital.
Since then, Professor Chun and Suga have discussed the establishment of a treatment center and social 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, we developed the 'MIND' program, a social group program that combines musical content with existing social training programs.
The MIND program is an abbreviation that implies 'Increase interaction and sensory experience through music, encounter social relationship formation and communication opportunities, learn the process of naturally engaging through the community, and learn a society that respects individual diversity and mingle with each other'. Children participating in this program play musical instruments, sing songs, write to music, and express their emotions and thoughts through music and writing.
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As the program progressed, children's emotions and language expressions increased significantly, and social skills were also trained in cooperation or waiting with other children. Oh (10 years old) and Lee (12 years old), who did not show an active response when only receiving speech therapy, showed their ability to choose their own instruments and play them to the beat.
During the ensemble process, various emotional expressions were also revealed. Kim (18 years old), who plays the saxophone, showed little language and emotional expression, but showed emotions in the process of collaborating with other children with expressions and responded to the attention and praise of the healer.
This program confirmed the effect of helping to form social relationships even in children with autism spectrum disorders with limited language skills.
In the future, Min Yoongi Treatment Center will upgrade the MIND program and build a self-contained music project model. For the continuous operation of the program, experts training courses in each treatment field will also be systematized to strengthen the continuity and expertise of the program.
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 are held from social training using music to social training for people with developmental disabilities, including patients with autism spectrum disorder. It will also expand the operation of ABA (Application Behavior Analysis) and language therapy, which have been in progress. In addition, in order to objectively demonstrate the effectiveness of the MIND program, clinical research, publication of academic papers, and publication of program manuals are also promoted.
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Suga said, `Through the program preparation and volunteer work with Professor Chun Geun-ah over the past seven months, I deeply felt that music can be a valuable channel for expressing one's heart and communicating with the world.' `It was a great gratitude and happiness to be able to be with children with autism spectrum disorder in itself, and I will continue to support more children to be with us as members of our society.'
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