Most K-pop stars donate to charity. Suga sat down and wrote the manual.
BTS member Suga has co-authored "MIND Program," a newly published therapy guide introducing a music-based approach to social skills development for children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder. The manual, released Tuesday, was developed in partnership with psychiatrist Cheon Keun-ah at Severance Hospital in Seoul.
{img}MIND stands for Music, Interaction, Network and Diversity. The program was built around a specific insight: traditional social skills training tends to rely heavily on language comprehension and cognitive ability, which can create barriers for children on the autism spectrum. The MIND approach sidesteps those barriers by letting participants build interpersonal connections through music instead. Activities like instrument selection and group performance create a shared space where interaction happens naturally, without putting language-based demands at the center of the experience.
The program runs across 12 structured sessions, moving gradually from basic interaction at the start through to emotional awareness, communication and collaborative music-making by the end.
Suga did not come in at the end to lend his name to someone else's work. He began collaborating with Cheon in 2024, contributing ideas from the planning stages and volunteering as an instructor during the program's pilot phase. The manual reflects that hands-on involvement directly.
{img}His connection to the hospital also predates the manual. In September 2025, Suga donated 5 billion won, roughly $3.35 million, to Severance Hospital to establish the Min Yoongi Treatment Center, named after him. The MIND program now operates out of that center.
Cheon described Suga's contributions as central to the program coming together, and said she hopes the manual will be picked up and used by clinicians and specialists around the world.
It is a different kind of story than most K-pop philanthropy. This was not a check written at a distance. Suga spent time in the research, the planning and the pilot sessions before the manual existed at all. The result is a published clinical resource that carries his name because he helped build it.