Senior Group Homes Model for Elderly Singaporeans in Public Housing Estates

Mdm Speaker, MSF started the Senior Group Homes in 2012 to promote ageing-in-place for seniors who are too frail to continue living alone in HDB rental flats.

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Each Senior Group Home is located in a rental block and comprises five to eight units of flats. Each unit is shared by two to three frail seniors. MSF funds Voluntary Welfare Organisations to operate the Homes. They coordinate and monitor a range of services for the seniors. Examples of services include Home Care, rehabilitation services and encouraging the seniors to engage in social activities in the community. The residents are also encouraged to provide mutual support to one another.

Two Senior Group Homes are currently in operation with a capacity of 36 places and we are completing another 12 Homes in different towns this year. When fully operational, the 14 Homes will accommodate up to 250 seniors.

MSF will review the take-up and plans for Senior Group Homes after they are rolled out this year.

I thank the Minister for the reply. I think the Senior Group Home is a great model because it allows for more inclusiveness in our community. I have two questions. One is: can this model be extended beyond rental flats? Can it go into new flats that are built for the future so that persons who are elderly and who can still live with some supervision can be included in the mainstream society?

The second question is: can this model also be extended to beyond elderly persons? For example, persons with special needs and disabilities who, similarly, could live a bit more independently in mainstream society with some supervision instead of going to nursing homes or residential homes.

Mr Tan Chuan-Jin : Mdm Speaker, the Government is building up our home and community care options to support our seniors to live and be cared for in their own homes. We are looking beyond just rental flats. Obviously, with the demographics going the way they are, we will have a lot more older people living in our estates and, therefore, we need to look at how best to cater for this.

For seniors with higher care needs, MOH has introduced subsidised centre-based elderly care services which include day care for seniors and healthcare services, such as community rehabilitation and centre-based nursing. MOH also provides additional support for seniors at home in the form of home-based healthcare and social care services. These include home medical and home nursing as well as home personal care, such as help with personal care and hygiene. MOH also has caregiver support schemes to support families who are caring for their elderly at home. So, whether this particular model can be extended, we are in the process of looking at how best to design our living spaces, as we go forward into

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the future.

There are many different views. We are going to try out different things. The whole idea is to see how best to integrate and to have our elderly living in and amongst us. You will find, as we discussed earlier, that for people with special disabilities and so on, some of the needs overlap with some of those for elderly folks. In terms of providing some of these services, for some of them, there will be an overlap. This is a work-in-progress but it is something that we are, as a Government, dealing with quite comprehensively.

The ageing issues encompass so many different things. Healthcare is one. Our living space itself is quite critical. So, we are looking at that. This model, in itself, will allow us to also have a glimpse into, firstly, are we able to scale it, and, secondly, what aspect of that you can incorporate into, perhaps, something that is more mainstream and across-the-board.

While we are looking at elderly Singaporeans with needs, we will also find, as the Member has mentioned, younger Singaporeans who may have special needs. The whole idea is to be able to provide these services and support in the community. The way we ought to look at it also is that for those who may not meet the age criterion – we could argue whether it is at 55, 65 or whatever age it may be – but the question is, really, about needs and that actually transcends age. If we do have Singaporeans with specific needs, we can look at how best to accommodate them.

I suspect that some of these services that are provided will be able to cater for that, but there may be very specific and specialised needs for persons with disabilities which may not be addressed through those service providers. The numbers are very different from the numbers I believe that we will be having. So, in those circumstances, we need to look at alternative models of how best to support them.