Seniors can choose how they want to stay active
25 May 2008
Media Release
Active aging took centre stage today, at the official opening of Wellness Kafe, which is located within Silver Circle, NTUC ElderCare’s social day care centre for the elderly at Jurong Central.
Wellness @ Jurong Central is one of the six programmes to launch the pilot Wellness Programme initiated by the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS) and the People’s Association (PA) last November. The programme is set out to engage seniors in meaningful activities amidst community bonding.
Wellness Kafe, is a facility to support social interaction in the Wellness @ Jurong Central programme. The casual environment is ideal for seniors in the community to spend their time within their own neighbourhood. They can now drop in at the Wellness Kafe to read, play board games and chat with other seniors.
Subsidised Health Screening
A subsidised health screening at $3 per person is specially organised from 8.30am to 11.30am today, targeted at seniors who had not had their checks in the last six months.
Wellness Membership Reward Card
Through today’s open house, senior residents of Jurong Central are introduced to a wide array of activities for them to sign-up with any of the interest groups. To encourage participation, all seniors who sign up for interest groups under the Wellness programme will be given a free Wellness Membership Reward Card and gain reward points. These points can be used to redeem surprise gifts upon accumulation.
In a concerted effort to promote active aging, activities planned for seniors are spanned across different interests. Some of the current programmes include senior volunteerism through providing free haircut for community service, learning to prepare healthy dishes, participating in group exercises such as ‘qigong’ and taking up new or renewed hobbies such as pot planting.
‘Train-The-Trainer’ Programme
Another new initiative under the Wellness @ Jurong Central programme is to encourage ownership of their health through the ‘Train-The-Trainer’ Programme.
The collaboration between the Health Promotion Board (HPB) and Wyeth enable seniors who are keen to learn and teach group exercise in a fun way with the Theraband Exercise, to sign-up for the free training course.
The Wellness Programme has been set out to support the four key components, namely – Information & Referral, Health Wellness, Active Aging and Senior-centric Services1. For the Wellness @ Jurong Central programme, NTUC ElderCare has been engage as the service provider and has been working closely with community partners such as the Citizens’ Consultative Committee (CCC) and Residents’ Committees (RC). Together with the local grassroots organisations, the programme hopes to maximise current resources to reach out to 1,000 seniors within 2 years.
Chairman of Jurong Green Community Club and Women’s Executive Committee (WEC) and Cooking Ambassador of Health Promotion Board (HPB), Ms Lucy Tan said,” I am very happy to volunteer my time and kick start the Healthy Cooking Club. I enjoy cooking and preparing healthy and delicious meals and hope to share my recipes with fellow seniors here.” The enthusiastic 54 year-old whipped up a healthy pumpkin rice dish for her demonstration today.
Kamisah Binte Atan was approached to lead the Pot Planting interest group and with the support of a few volunteers, including 79 year-old Madam Kwan Toh. Madam Kamisah started a gardening plot in another neighbourhood zone which even won prizes in various categories of competitions organised by the National Parks Board. Taking into consideration the purpose and safety of the activity, Madam Kamisah said, “Besides getting seniors to engage their mind and hands in planting, we also need to make the activity safe for them. I hope to work with the volunteers to plan a gardening plot for seniors to plant safely, within a good height and also not to strain their backs.” Both ladies feel a sense of satisfaction watching their plants grow and are now planning the gardening plot together with new members whom they hope to recruit under the Wellness Programme.
Lim Sia Hoe
Senior Manager
NTUC ElderCare Co-operative Limited
Tan Siang Hui
Chairman
Jurong Central Wellness Management Committee
Annex 1:
Overview of Wellness Programme
The pilot Wellness Programme has four key components, namely - Information & Referral; Health Wellness; Active Ageing; and Senior-centric Services.
(i) Information & Referral: Seniors in need of eldercare services will be able to access the relevant information and get referrals to the relevant health, eldercare or social services within the community that best meet their needs. The seniors will be assisted by the Wellness Coordinators (previously termed as Seniors Navigators).
(ii) Health Wellness: There will be regular health promotion activities organized to encourage seniors to go for regular health screenings as well as more structured follow-up programmes to follow-up with different groups of seniors with different needs i.e. those with medical needs, those who may be at risk and need to manage their health conditions and those who are well but need to maintain a healthy lifestyle (through regular physical activity, better nutrition, smoking cessation and mental wellbeing).
(iii) Active Ageing: This pilot programme will tap on existing programmes organized by PA and grassroots organizations to encourage seniors to remain socially active. The programme will also reach out to the socially isolated seniors in the community. The seniors can be involved to plan activities for other seniors, or to be involved in other voluntary activities i.e. senior volunteerism. Suitable partners such as the Council for Third Age can also be brought in to promote lifelong learning and to educate the seniors on financial planning.
(iv) Senior-centric Services: This pilot programme will also help to coordinate and work with service providers to provide senior-centric eldercare services within the local community.
