GETTING MORE SENIORS INVOLVED
Around S$800 million will go towards enhancing active ageing centres from the 2024 financial year to FY2028.
Mr Ong announced that each active ageing centre will have its budget increased by at least 50 per cent, meaning that each centre’s current annual budget of around S$400,000 will rise to S$600,000. A further tier will be available to these centres if they achieve certain outcomes.
“So significantly more resources for each and every active ageing centre, but then with greater resourcing we also have higher expectations for active ageing centres,” said Mr Ong, adding that this involved expanding outreach to seniors and improving programmes.
Under Age Well SG, the operating model of the centres will be improved with a view to making them more convenient and accessible for seniors, and to reach out to the majority of them.
Silver Generation Ambassadors, meanwhile, will strengthen their community outreach and connect with seniors in common spaces, focusing on those who are at risk of social isolation.
The quality and range of programmes for seniors across the domains of social, physical health, cognitive, learning and volunteerism will also be enhanced. The centres will have the flexibility to customise programmes to cater to the needs of the seniors in their neighbourhoods.
One “core function” of the active ageing centres will be to drive senior volunteerism, said Mr Ong. Today, about 1,900 seniors who volunteer are Silver Generation Ambassadors.
“We must be able to have more such programmes where we can take in big numbers of senior volunteers,” he said.
“And all these volunteers, they share that volunteering gives them a sense of purpose, a way to contribute to a community regardless of their age, and it helps them remain healthy.”
A Silver Generation Volunteer programme will be rolled out to train and deploy senior volunteers to the active ageing centres.
The Agency for Integrated Care (AIC) will provide the training before matching senior volunteers to opportunities at the active ageing centres. There, senior volunteers can organise and run programmes for other seniors.
The authorities plan to double the number of senior volunteers to about 4,000 by 2025.
Apart from these improvements, the centres will also work closely with community partners and healthcare clusters to support seniors.
The number of centres islandwide will be increased from 154 currently to 220 by 2025, providing eight in 10 seniors with access to active ageing centre activities in the vicinity of their homes.
ASSISTED LIVING FACILITIES
Seniors who need more assistance in everyday living can also look forward to more alternative care models being explored by the government.
In September this year, MOH and AIC launched applications for a sandbox to look into the viability of a new caregiving model which involves having foreign live-in caregivers for seniors in shared apartments.
MOH and AIC are working with the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) to help the private sector with the endeavour by providing foreign manpower concessions to help with manpower challenges.
So far, five companies – Active Global Respite Care, Econ Health & Wellness, Red Crowns Senior Living, St Bernadette Assisted Living and TS Care Services – have been identified to be onboarded. These five will aim to serve about 800 seniors. The authorities are looking to reach a decision on the pilot within the next two years.
Mr Ong stressed that these alternative models are not expected to replace facilities such as nursing homes.
“I think the care needs of seniors are diverse and need to be met with different kinds of providers,” he said, citing seniors who need different levels of care which may determine which model is best for them. Those who can live fairly independently, for example, may be suited for Community Care Apartments.
“So I think what we want to build is a continuum of care models,” he added.
Assisted living facilities, where seniors live in home-like lodgings that also provide caregiving services, are already available here.
The St Bernadette Lifestyle Village in Bukit Timah, for example, houses seniors who live in their own private ensuite rooms. These seniors have access to round-the-clock care.
Red Crowns, a local care provider that began operations in April 2021, also operates such facilities. However, the company came under the spotlight in June this year for possible offences involving the employment of foreign domestic workers.
Asked about Red Crown’s involvement in the latest sandbox, Mr Ong noted that Red Crown had received positive feedback from clients on its services, but that its suspected infraction was a “serious matter”.
“MOM will need to follow up with regulatory actions, enforcement actions, disciplinary actions … but we take a step back and look at what Red Crown has done. It has also pushed the envelope and developed a new shared care service model which can be useful,” said Mr Ong.
The Health Minister said that after speaking to MOM, MOH decided to start the sandbox and look at things “purely objectively” in terms of the level of service and how much it would benefit seniors.
After looking at proposals, MOH shortlisted five providers, which included Red Crown.
Mr Ong added that from an “objective, professional point of view”, MOH ought to consider Red Crown’s proposal seriously “based on their capabilities and the service level that they have managed to deliver in their previous model”. This is despite the fact that “it was a model that breached certain MOM rules”.
The company will continue to be part of the initiative pending the outcome of investigations.
The authorities will also ramp up the supply of Community Care Apartments – assisted-living public housing for seniors that allows them to reside in neighbourhoods they are familiar with.
The flats come pre-installed with senior-friendly fittings and come with care services that can be tailored to seniors’ needs.
The first two projects, Harmony Village @ Bukit Batok and Queensway Canopy in Queenstown were launched in 2021 and 2022 respectively. Both have take-up rates of close to 90 per cent, according to MND.
The first batch of residents is expected to move into Harmony Village @ Bukit Batok next year.
If the model of care provision proves scalable and effective, up to 30 Community Care Apartment projects will be launched across Singapore by 2030.
The third project, in Bedok, will be launched in the upcoming December Build-to-Order exercise.
Asked how the government would balance high demand for housing against building more Community Care Apartments for seniors, Mr Lee noted that the demand for housing skyrocketed during the COVID-19 pandemic and still remains high.
He added that recent HDB launch application rates have shown some moderation, in part because delayed flats are being completed.
The government has also ramped up supply “quite aggressively”, has provided support to the resale market through measures such as grants that give people more access to resale flats, and has also tightened the rules to prioritise those looking to settle down, he said.
“At the same time, there is also high demand from seniors looking to right-size. So we’ve said earlier that for seniors as well as singles, we are ramping up the supply … And along with that, a ramp-up of the Community Care Apartments, 30 more projects between now and 2030. So those projects will be infused into some of our existing launches,” said Mr Lee.
He added that the authorities will watch the initial launches to ensure that the model works well.