Mr Ng Ser Miang, Chairman of NTUC FairPrice Co-operative Ltd
Mr Tan Kian Chew, CEO of NTUC FairPrice Co-operative Ltd
Fellow union leaders and friends
A very good afternoon to all of you.
Introduction: Ageing Population and its Issues
1. As most of you are aware, countries around the world, including those in Asia like Japan and Hong Kong, are facing an increase in ageing population. Singapore, though is considerably a young country, faces this challenge as well.
2. In about 6 years time, we will have an increase of 0.5% in our population that will belong to the age group of 65 and above. And by year 2030, it will multiply threefold from current 300,000 to 900,000 persons. And in Parliament on Thursday, President Nathan said that the numbers will double in 15 years’ time.
3. The figures indicate that we should be paying more attention to the elderly and stepping up the development of services for the elderly. We have to get ourselves prepared in many ways to face the various challenges that an ageing population may bring. They can be financial stability, availability of eldercare services, affordable healthcare costs, employment issues, suitable lifestyle activities, environmental factors and etc.
4. This year, the Committee on Ageing Issues has made several recommendations in their Report on the Ageing Population. This include promoting integrated day care and rehabilitation centres, providing more support for care-givers, having an elderly-friendly environment, promoting universal design to benefit all users and many more.
5. As NTUC ElderCare aims to complement the national effort in taking care of its ageing Singaporeans, it strongly supports the recommendations made by the Committee on Ageing Issues. It actively develop plans that are in line with the recommendations made.
Integrated Day Care And Rehabilitation Centres
6. Since January 1999, NTUC ElderCare has been operating 3 day care centres that aim to support the dual-income average Singaporean families in caring for their elderly dependents when they are at work. It runs daily activities that stimulate the physical, social and mental faculties of the elderly.
7. We strongly believe there is a need for integrated activities to be in place to provide for a holistic care towards one’s total well-being. All our centres adopts this service model, including the new 4th centre that we are launching today.
8. It will incorporate existing activities ranging from social and recreational, physiotherapy treatments, maintenance exercises and mental activities. Soon, the centre will introduce “Memory Training for Seniors” after adaptation to the local context.
Providing More Support for Care-givers
9. The 3 day care centres have also recently started “Meet-the-Carer” session. The elderly at the centres will be evaluated on their physical, social and mental well-being every six months. Their progress will be charted into a personalized “Progress Report” and shared with their care-givers and family members. This serves as a good monitoring instrument towards their holistic well-being as well as helping us to identify gaps to develop new centre activity or programme.
10. Educational talks on practical care-giving skills will also be organized in conjunction with these sessions. This is to equip our care-givers with more skills and tips in caring for their elderly at home.
11. We are working towards providing a holistic care-giving approach and more support to our seniors and care-givers. Care-giving is a 24-7 job and it can be demanding and stressful than any other job types.
Promoting Universal Design and Elderly-friendly Environment
12. During my recent trip to Hong Kong, I noted that the Hong Kong Housing Society has been actively promoting Universal Design and Elderly-friendly environment since 2 years ago. They had set-up a resource centre that examine and advocate universal designs, published a guide book, build a demonstration mock-up unit and created assessment units that test the functionality of the elderly’s 5 senses including balancing and stability. These universal designs have also been incorporated in their new housing developments.
13. I am hearten to know that our Building and Construction Authority (BCA) is also working on adopting and promoting universal designs for the buildings in Singapore, making our City accessible and user-friendly for every one.
14. This new centre at Jurong Central has also adopted the Universal Design features at its planning and design stage. It incorporates features such as barrier-free accessibility, home-safety and user-friendly details like: -
a. the need and use of space by people of different physical conditions
b. having grooves and warning colour strips on ramps at doorways
c. a reception counter that is suitable for use by a person on wheelchair
and many more.
15. For example, I was told that the lower portion of the doors at our centre tend to chip off easily. That is the consequences of not having kick plates installed at places where wheelchair traffic is expected.
16. Therefore, these small details, other than grab-bars and non-slip tiles, do serve a purpose of its own and make a difference to the way in conducting one’s daily activities. We hope the centre can cater to a wider group of people and meeting the changing demands and needs in the future.
17. I am also glad to announce that the Jurong Town Council has decided to make the precinct where our new centre will be located a barrier-free precinct. So Blocks 401 to 408 will be the first precinct to be made barrier-free.
18. As you have seen from the video presentation, we have also incorporate a dedicated area for “Independent Living Showroom”. We believe it is possibly the first day care centre to have such a platform whereby we can demonstrate and advise seniors, the disabled and care-givers on ways to improve their existing living environment, making it more user-friendly or suitable to their current physical conditions.
19. The showroom will also exhibit some “Assisted Living Devices or Equipments” that can assist the elderly with their daily living activities. With these, we hope that they can be motivated to look pass their physical conditions and live on and have a sense of independence and dignity.
20. All the plans would not materialize if we do not have the generous support and sponsorships from our well-wishers, individuals and corporations who share and believe in our vision and activities. Therefore, on behalf of ElderCare’s Board, we would like to express our deepest appreciation to Mr Ng Ser Miang, Chairman and the Board of NTUC FairPrice, for their generous support of ElderCare projects. FairPrice has pledged $2 million to fund the various projects of ElderCare over the next two years and this has made FairPrice our largest single donor. Out of the $2 million donation, $400,000 will go towards the setting up of this new centre.
Thank you.
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For media queries, please contact:
Ms Karen Kan
Senior Executive
NTUC ElderCare Co-operative Ltd
DID 6213-8213, Fax: 6327-3751
Email kanlm@ntuc.org.sg
Ms Chong Yan Cheng
Consultant
Corporate Communication Dept
National Trades Union Congress
DID 6213 8190, HP: 9797 8985
Email chongycheng@ntuc.org.sg
