Daily Lessons from Life 20 January 2012 -

"Govt moves urgently to expand aged care services - CNA 20 January 2012

SINGAPORE: The government is moving with urgency to significantly expand care services for the aged, to cope with the expected surge in demand by 2020, due to a fast ageing population.

It estimates that by 2030, there will be 117,000 seniors who are semi-ambulant or non-ambulant -- more than 2.5 times that of today.

Minister for Health Gan Kim Yong announced Friday morning a slew of initiatives at the Ministerial Committee on Ageing dialogue session with stakeholders, to seek their ideas on the way forward.

Mr Gan said: "More than 85 per cent of the 600,000 seniors in 2020 are expected to be functional and healthy. We will be aggressively pushing for preventive screening and promoting a more healthy lifestyle among seniors, so that they can remain active and healthy for as long as possible."

On its part, the Ministerial Committee on Ageing -- set up in 2007 to promote active ageing as Singapore's population rapidly ages -- will enhance care for the aged here.

It wants to at least double the outreach of home-based healthcare services, from the current 4,000. The government will also increase the number of seniors who are eligible for home-based social care, from the existing 2,000 to 7,500.

Besides these, it wants to expand the number of day social and rehabilitative care places to about 6,200, from the existing 2,100. Currently, there are 42 Seniors Activity Centres that serve 18,000.

The Ministry of Health (MOH) said it intends to build more Seniors Activity Centres, so that they can reach out to the growing number of vulnerable seniors.

Mr Gan also announced plans to ramp up the number of nursing-home beds by some 70 per cent, to 15,600.

"By 2020, some 600,000 people, 15 per cent of the cohort of the population, will be above 65 years old, and from there, the pace of ageing will start to accelerate.

Other ideas the government is exploring is the development of more aged care facilities like day centres and nursing homes, under a Build-Own-Lease model.

Mr Gan said the ministry will develop manpower for the sector.

So, the ministry will also have to expand new care services, including stronger transition care after discharge from hospitals, as well as further develop transitional convalescence facilities, to rehabilitate seniors.

He added that the committee will review care financing schemes to make aged care more affordable.

To help raise productivity, Mr Gan is prepared to work with stakeholders to study how information technology can be maximised to help achieve better integrated care and greater efficiency.

Over the years, MOH has gradually shifted its focus to the aged care sector.

But with a rapidly ageing population, this has now become an immediate task of enormous proportion. The ministry thus, has its hands full, as it tries to play catch-up on a massive scale."

This is the type of issue the government has to tackle. Look 10 years ahead and start working NOW!

Lessons for me are:

1. running a nation needs visionary. Look 10-20 years ahead. Some of them are easy to project while some are more difficult. Ageing is the easier one to project so we SHOULD be able to respond pro-actively and early!;

2. like building a budget, depending on the primary number. In this case, the no. of aged person by year, we build in: what are the expenses for EACH aged person, what do they really need, how to fund them, what can we do differently to keep the aged healthy for a long period of time, what happened when the aged become immobil and dependent, the standard: people/materials/method/machine/technologies/SPACE/etc come into consideration, etc. All these will required careful financial modelling!;

3. while we build the infrastructure, the education of aged care helpers, etc, we MUST also inculcate and inbue a sense of care for the aged NOW. Let the young starts to think of the aged person as someone to cherish and care for, even when the aged can sometimes be temperamental, uncooperative, or even rude. It will take time for this value to seep into the national phsychic, so it MUST start now too.

It is a grave question. Someone supposedly had started on this back in 2007 drawing millions. Now it is supposedly in an urgent state and the government is playing catch-up. Let's hope the soft side of the solution is not forgotten!!

May I wish all aged Singaporeans a Healthy, Happy, Purposeful and Prosperous Year of the Water Dragon!!