Debated in Parliament on 22 Nov 2023.
Mr Dennis Tan Lip Fong asked the Minister for Social and Family Development (a) whether the Ministry keeps a record of the current number of elderly caregivers who are caring for adult persons with intellectual disabilities, in particular those who are low functioning and, if so, what is the number; (b) what are the current avenues available to help such caregivers in the event they lose their mental capacity due to reasons including an early onset of dementia; and (c) whether the Ministry will consider developing and implementing early identification and support programmes for such caregivers.
Mr Speaker, we do not directly track the number of elderly caregivers who are caring for adults with intellectual disabilities. However, based on our records, there are about 900 adult persons with intellectual disabilities who are enrolled in our disability care services and living at home with at least one caregiver aged 65 years and above.
We encourage all seniors, including caregivers of persons with disabilities, to plan early for their own long-term care needs. This includes drawing up a Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA), which allows a person aged at least 21 to voluntarily appoint other individuals to make decisions and act on their behalf if they lose mental capacity. For those who lose their mental capacity without an LPA, their family members can apply to the Court to be appointed as deputies and make decisions in their best interest. If there is no suitable person who can apply to be their deputy, a professional deputy can apply to the Courts to act on their behalf.
More than one caregiver can apply to be appointed by the Court as deputies for an adult person with disability and no mental capacity. Should one of the appointed deputies lose mental capacity, the other deputy or deputies can continue to support the person with disability.
We encourage caregivers of persons with disabilities to plan ahead and approach SG Enable and the Special Needs Trust Company early for future care planning support for their loved ones, including deputyship matters, financial planning, respite care and peer support.
Mr Dennis Tan.
Thank you, Mr Speaker. I thank the Senior Parliamentary Secretary for his answers. Will the Ministry consider developing and implementing an early identification and support programme for such caregivers that is on a multi-agency basis, beyond MSF and perhaps with the Ministry of Health (MOH), Agency for Integrated Care (AIC), with the Active Ageing Centres (AACs) on the ground, and in fact, including other stakeholders like the Law Society and doctors? I say lawyers and doctors, because they may have to interface with such families in the course of their related work. Rather than to leave it to the families to seek help when they have illness like dementia, because at that point in time, they may not have sufficient extended family support. So, I would urge the Government to consider looking into this.
Mr Speaker, I thank the Member for his supplementary question. Some of that work is already ongoing. In the reply by MOH to hon Member Mr Gan Thiam Poh's Parliamentary Question in May 2022, MOH has made clear that the outreach by AIC on LPA awareness, on things such as future care planning, is already ongoing. AIC, together with the community partners on the ground, is already doing a lot of work to make sure that the drawing up of an LPA and other related end-of-life or future care planning instruments are as well-known or as propagated as possible.
But I do note that there is always capacity to do more.
Also, in addition, the fee waiver that has been announced in March 2023 and the extension of an additional three years, these are further incentives on the ground to help encourage the drawing up of LPAs in advance. There has been some momentum, from what I know, there has been quite a bit of community ground-up efforts as well to encourage the drawing up of LPAs as well as advanced care plans. But we note that there is always room and capacity to do more.
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