Ageing with Purpose; Support for Care-givers

Thank you. And Mr Ang Wei Neng and Mayor Teo Ho Pin both shared that as chairpersons of their Town Council respectively, they took extra effort to take on older workers.

I shared Kebun Baru's comprehensive programme to take care of frail and socially isolated seniors, through befriending, medical attention, free-meal deliveries, healthy communal meals, and stepped up Police patrols. I also shared on our senior activity centre and church gathering points serving all seniors, our cancer peer support network and efforts to build a dementia-friendly Kebun Baru.

Now that I have summarised our discussion, let me thank Senior Minister of State Amy Khor, Senior Minister of State Sim Ann, Senior Minister of State Edwin Tong, Minister of State Sam Tan, Senior Parliamentary Secretary Low Yen Ling and Senior Parliamentary Secretary Sun Xueling for providing a comprehensive response on behalf of the Government and for taking on some ideas immediately.

In my conversations with Senior Minister of State Amy Khor, she frequently described our whole-of-the-Government plan for active ageing is a "Living Document", one with ample room for new good ideas. Indeed, her comment reflects the open-mindedness of our Government. I am confident that our Government will review our ideas closely, and take in many of them in good time.

At this juncture, I also like to thank retired Members of Parliament, Mdm Yu-Foo Yee Shoon, Assoc Prof Koo Tsai Kee and Dr Chiang Hai Ding, who in the best tradition of PAP.SG, passed down invaluable knowledge on senior policies from earlier generations of PAP Members of Parliament to current Members of Parliament, such as Ms Joan Pereira and myself.

Let me now wrap up the Motion. Indeed, to roll out the Merdeka Generation Package is a good opportunity for us to review our country's senior-related policies. The Merdeka Generation laid laid the foundations of the independent and modern Singapore with their can-do spirit and resilience. Now is a good time for Singapore to empower our Merdeka Generation and all our seniors to pursue an independent and active life in their golden years, filled with purpose and dignity.

Getting Singapore and Singaporeans prepared for successful ageing requires long-term planning. This is our strength and we must leverage on it. This requires us to develop the necessary policies and mindset beyond today and tomorrow.

PAP.SG believes that the Government can enact appropriate policies to address long-term ageing issues. But PAP.SG also believes that all of us wearing different hats, whether it is employers, employees, unions, social workers, and seniors, must all come together and play our role. No single group can succeed without the others moving together.

And ultimately, we must endeavour to be the best place in the world to age in place. Our seniors deserve nothing less. And one day, we ourselves will age, and we too deserve nothing less.

Mr Speaker, it has been a long time and I would like to thank all hon Members who have participated in this debate and expressed their support for the Motion on Support for Care-givers, and also to the Government for their replies.

Clearly, it is neither sustainable, practicable nor desirable for all care-giving to be relegated to the state or to delegated institutions. This twin today Motion is united by a focus on the elderly, and caring for our seniors is an issue of particular relevance in the context of our rapidly ageing society. All Members agree that a whole-of-society approach is needed – all of us, the Government, the community, families and individuals need to work together to support our senior care recipients and also their care-givers, who are often elderly as well.

Care-givers face many hurdles, as Members have elaborated in some detail. But the one key problem that most care-givers face, and which has been described by many studies on care-givers, is financial. Many Members, Dr Lily Neo, Mr Chen Show Mao, Mr Christopher de Souza, Ms Tin Pei Ling, Mr Murali Pillai and also Dr Intan, agreed with me that the Government should look into providing a Care-giver Allowance of some form, in line with countries like Sweden, the United Kingdom, Australia and Hong Kong.

I am happy to hear that MOH will indeed be introducing such financial support in the form of a Home Care-giving Grant, as announced by Senior Minister of State Edwin Tong. I am also particularly happy that MOH will be allowing MediSave use to be extended to siblings, as this is not an uncommon appeal that I receive both as a doctor from my patients and also as a Member of Parliament from my residents. This would certainly help to alleviate the out-of-pocket expenditures of family care-givers.

The financial, and indeed the physical and mental, stress faced by care-givers is compounded by disruptions to their work due to their care-giving commitments, and, as noted, close to three-quarters of care-givers are employed. Mr Melvin Yong, Ms Joan Pereira, Ms Rahayu and myself have called for various means of workplace and workforce support. I am encouraged that MOM will be focusing on measures to facilitate flexible working hours, and considering enhancements to the Work-Life Grant.

Mr Melvin Yong has recommended a Progressive Wage Model (PWM) for professional care-givers and also asked for more to be done to support care-givers’ re-entry into the workforce. I believe that more can be done to leverage on schemes such as Adapt and Grow to support their re-entry into the workforce. Like Mr Yong, Mr Christopher de Souza and Dr Lily Neo, I also hope that MOM will re-consider legislating care-giver or eldercare leave for workers.

Today, in this House, we have heard many touching and inspirational stories of caring and being cared for, and your support for this Motion in this House today signifies your appreciation and recognition of the sacrifices and selflessness of all care-givers. And we have to do more to support care-givers, other than just financial support.

Many care-givers feel isolated and overwhelmed at various points in their care-giving journey and burn-out and depression are all too common amongst care-givers. Respite care is a critical component of caring for care-givers and more has to be done to make respite care in Singapore more accessible and more affordable, as noted by Ms Tin Pei Ling, Dr Lily Neo, Er Dr Lee Bee Wah and Mr Christopher de Souza. I welcome the announcements on the night respite care service for seniors with dementia and steps such as pre-enrolment to reduce onboarding times for respite services. The home-based respite service to support care-givers for cancer patients, as also announced by Senior Minister of State Edwin Tong, will also go a long way towards improving end-of-life care for Singaporeans.

AIC’s pilot outreach teams to reach out to care-givers who are themselves at risk, and the moves towards growing care-giver support networks in our neighbourhoods, are all welcome moves to safeguard the well-being of care-givers, and in turn those that they care for. I note, however, that the Survey on Informal Care-giving that was commissioned by MCYS and published in the early 2010s, noted that while recognising that support networks are likely to be important, the participation by care-givers in such networks was low and the overall experience reported was not particularly positive. I hope that we can learn from these past experiences such that the current incarnation of care-giver support networks will meet with greater acceptance and greater success.

Informal care-giving means that care-givers are typically not formally trained in care-giving, and often have their roles thrust upon them when a loved one falls ill, often quite unexpectedly. Many care-givers have shared that one of the reasons they feel unable to cope is because they have little experience and little knowledge about how to look after someone else in a proper and efficient manner. In a similar vein, we recognise that in Singapore a high proportion of informal care-giving is provided by Foreign Domestic Workers, who also often do not have such skills. Hence, the measures that were announced to broaden care-giver training are very welcome indeed.

Besides skills, many care-givers have also shared that they often had difficulties finding about formal support services that could have facilitated their care-giving duties. In hospitals, we have patient or care navigators to assist patients in accessing the types of care and support that they need, and this has paid significant dividends in improving the standard of patient care and the overall care experience, and improved value while reducing costs.

I am happy to learn that more effort will be put into improving care navigation for care-givers, and the leveraging of Silver Generation Offices for this purpose has also been suggested by Miss Cheng Li Hui, Ms Denise Phua and Mr Murali Pillai. E-services, as suggested by Mr Melvin Yong, can also be used to push out information to care-givers and assist care-givers to procure services and equipment. In a similar note, Ms Denise Phua has also spoken about the special challenges facing care-givers of Persons With Disabilities and a call for better case identification, individualisation and integration bears a closer look.

All of us here are care-givers, either at present, in the past or in the future. Caring for others is an important determinant of who we are as individuals, and who we are as a society. It is a duty that is often not anticipated and often unprepared for, but there is no nobler duty, particularly when we are caring for the elderly who cared for us when we were little and similarly vulnerable.

This Motion was raised to recognise this crucial role that care-givers play in society, particularly in regard to looking after our seniors, and we call upon the Government and all Singaporeans to continue our steadfast support for the care-givers amongst us. [Applause.]

We have now come to the conclusion of the debate. I shall put the necessary questions to the House for a decision. We will first deal with Mr Kwek's Motion on Ageing with Purpose.

Question put, and agreed to.

Resolved, "That this House calls for a whole of Singapore effort to ensure that Singaporeans are able to age with purpose and dignity, stay healthy and connected, and be financially stable to look forward to their years ahead."

We now deal with Dr Chia's Motion on Support for Care-givers.

Question put, and agreed to.

Resolved, "That this House recognises, given our rapidly ageing population, the important role that care-givers play in helping our Singaporeans age with dignity, and calls on the Government and the community to continue strengthening support for care-givers."