AGEING IN PLACE IN SINGAPORE

Singapore's population is rapidly ageing with the number of seniors aged 65 and above expected to grow to more than 900,000 in 2030. The Ministerial Committee on Ageing (MCA)'s vision is to enable our seniors to age-in-place gracefully and continue to enjoy a high quality of life as they age. In the context of ageing in place, the MCA aims to achieve this in two areas: first, to keep seniors healthy, active and safe in the community, and second, to provide good aged care.

On the first area, we have rolled out the National Wellness Programme to all 87 constituencies as at end 2012. The programme reaches out to seniors and encourages them to go for regular screening, and participate in physical and social activities. Sixteen constituencies in Singapore have also introduced the City for All Ages (CFAA) initiative to make their communities more senior-friendly. Under this, community leaders and residents in the communities come together to promote health screening and exercises, suggest hardware improvements around the community and introduce new befriending programmes to help the needy. We also work with the Council for Third Age (C3A) to promote active ageing, and lifelong learning programmes.

On the second area, we are enhancing our aged care services through better accessibility, quality and affordability. We are ramping up our capacity for aged care services and are on track to put in place 15,600 nursing home beds and 6,200 day care spaces, as well as capacity for 7,500 home social care clients and 10,000 home healthcare clients by 2020. We are working to improve the quality of aged care by working with providers to increase their standards of care, for example through the Enhanced Nursing Home Standards. We are also working to make aged care services more affordable. We expanded the Intermediate and Long-Term Care subsidy framework to cover two-thirds of resident households in 2012.

The MCA will continue to work on these strategies so that Singapore can be a good place for our seniors to age in.

About the Speaker - Ong Yunn Shing

As Director (Ageing Planning Office), Yunn Shing oversees the planning and implementation of strategies to address the needs of Singapore's ageing population. In particular, the Ageing Planning Office staffs the Ministerial Committee on Ageing which drives the strategies to keep seniors active and healthy for as long as possible, as well as enhance the capacity and capability of the aged care sector to better serve seniors with care needs. The Ageing Planning Office also oversees the City For All Ages project, which involves working with grassroots organisations in various precincts to survey the needs of seniors in those precincts and developing local strategies and initiatives to meet the needs on the ground.