Outcome of Pilot Care Close to Home Service Model in HDB Estates

Launched in 2014, the Care Close to Home (C2H) pilot aimed to assist seniors in HDB public rental estates to age-in-place. Nurse-led care teams were deployed to selected precincts, with a focus on supporting seniors in their activities of daily living and monitoring of medical conditions, in their homes. The pilot is currently running at 15 sites across Singapore, with around 6,000 enrolled clients.

The Ministry of Health undertook a review of the scheme from 2018 to 2020. Based on our findings, clients perceived the services to be easily accessible.  However, we also found that the services did not always meet clients’ needs. For example, the majority of clients enrolled onto C2H were relatively well and did not require assistance with activities of daily living which the programme focused on. On the other hand, clients with complex health and social needs required deeper and more intensive services beyond what C2H was able to provide.

In order to address seniors’ needs better and scale up the services to all seniors in the community, we will be transiting the C2H pilot to the new eldercare centre service model. Under the new model which will be rolled out progressively at eldercare centres in phases from May 2021 to 2024, all eldercare centres will provide a common suite of services, comprising active ageing programmes, befriending or buddying, and information and referral to care services. On top of this set of common services, centres may also layer on additional care services such as day care or community rehabilitation to cater to seniors who are frailer.

As part of the transition, the Ministry of Health will work with seniors, their caregivers, the C2H and eldercare centre providers to transit clients smoothly to the relevant services. For example, seniors requiring greater social support will receive befriending and buddying services, while those with higher care needs and require assistance with their activities of daily living will be referred to the appropriate care services such as home personal care. With this transition, we hope to better enable our seniors to age-in-place within the community.