To advertise volunteerism, the SG Cares office, an unit under the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth, will certainly partner RSVP Singapore, an organisation meant for senior volunteers, to engage 750 corporates and their mature employees by 2027.
Other attempts will include developing volunteer management resources to help organisations better engage senior volunteers, as well as the roll-out of an improved Silver Volunteer Finance this year to enable offer training and growth, as well as opportunities pertaining to inter-generational volunteering.
Meanwhile, the Nationwide Silver Academy is hoping to reach more than 70, 000 senior learners over the following five years.
Set up in 2015, the particular academy now provides more than 1, 500 courses across a wide range of topics. Moving forward, it is going to convert selected programs to online studying formats to offer higher accessibility.
SENIOR-FRIENDLY INFRASTRUCTURE
Finally, more senior-friendly facilities in the community and transport are in the works.
The Nationwide Parks Board is working towards creating 25 therapeutic gardens in parks islandwide by 2027, upward from the current nine.
These gardens are scientifically-designed to satisfy the physical, emotional and social needs of users for example persons with dementia or stroke individuals, said Minister pertaining to National Development Desmond Lee who furthermore participated in the conversation session.
Professionals will also continue to assist in therapeutic horticultural programmes to promote better actual and mental health of seniors.
By 2025, fifty Silver Zones – a scheme to improve road safety for the elderly with steps such as reduced velocity limits – will be implemented by the Ministry of Transport plus Land Transport Power.
A hundred pedestrian overhead links near places frequented by seniors will also be retrofitted with lifts, while more pedestrian crossings will be set up with Green Man+ to give seniors additional time to cross the road.
Among additional initiatives, Sport Singapore will be initiating an Active Silver Hub that provides opportunities for seniors and youths to interact through modified sports activities and programmes.
Describing ageing as “the most crucial social development” in Singapore, Mr Ong said the Government started preparing for an older Singapore many years ago with policies such as the gradual extension of working age, rolling out SkillsFuture and more recently, the Healthier SG strategy which focuses heavily on preventive care.
At the same time, there is a need to strengthen support systems make it possible for ageing in communities, rather than in institutions like nursing homes.
“In communities, our seniors are more likely to have friends, loved ones and activities to engage themselves in. These are the very best therapies to help them stay healthy and prevent frailty, ” said Mr Ong, who is also chairman of the Ministerial Committee on Ageing.
“The fact is that ageing is going to affect every facet of our lives, and we need to make changes and adjustments to many areas – public policy, infrastructure, social practices, individual behaviour – in order to embrace ageing as a reality. ”