ENABLING ACTIVE, HEALTHY AGEING
These include improving senior-friendly facilities and having nurses stationed at ageing centres, efforts which are increasingly important in Singapore’s greying population.
The project will also look at designing infrastructure catered to seniors.
Studies will be conducted to find out how these efforts can lead to better quality of life and health.
The goal is to bring the project to estates such as Chinatown and Bukit Merah in future.
At a ceremony held at Changi General Hospital to mark the expanded partnership between SingHealth and SUTD, Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat said enabling active and healthy ageing requires various interventions.
These include tapping new technologies to monitor seniors’ health, and modifying homes and public spaces to be more senior-friendly.
“Taken together, these interventions in population health will benefit not only the seniors, but also alleviate the burden on caregivers as the number of seniors grows,” said Mr Heng.
“The wide range of intervention means that different sets of expertise will be needed to execute as well as integrate them. Partnerships, between stakeholders and across sectors, will be essential, to enable us to take a citizen-centric approach to delivering services.”
In Singapore and many other countries, people are ageing rapidly, he added.
“Singapore is one of the fastest ageing societies globally and will soon be a ‘super-aged’ society,” he said.
In 2010, only one in 10 Singaporeans were aged 65 and above. Today, that number has almost doubled to one in five Singaporeans. By 2030, it will be nearly one in four.
“This demographic trend has significant social and economic implications for us,” Mr Heng noted.
“We are already rethinking our workforce, our economy, and our provision of healthcare to adapt to an ageing population.”