Good progress in the implementation of Age Well SG

To provide more conducive environments and reach more seniors, the Ministry of Health (MOH) will dedicate $140 million to enhance and expand our Active Ageing Centres (AACs). We will also roll out the enhanced Home Personal Care (HPC+) service island-wide by end-2025, to further strengthen care support in the community. These were announced by Minister for Health, Mr Ong Ye Kung, at the Silver Generation Office’s (SGO) 10th Anniversary celebration event today, as he provided an update on Age Well SG.

Announced in November 2023, Age Well SG is our national programme to help our seniors age well in the community. As announced in Budget 2024, the Government has set aside $3.5 billion for this effort over the next decade.

Encouraging Active Ageing

Key to the Age Well SG strategy is to anchor ageing in the community. Our AACs serve as key nodes for seniors to stay socially engaged and physically active.

We have been reaching out to seniors across Singapore to understand their needs and connect them to the AACs. Since 2022, SGO has been conducting door-to-door Preventive Health Visits to engage seniors, to find out about their health and social needs and connect them to a nearby AAC or relevant support services in the community. To date, more than 480,000 seniors have been engaged through these visits, with the support of our Silver Generation Ambassadors.

We are also making good progress in expanding our AAC network and programmes, and stepping up engagement efforts to reach more seniors.

Over the past year, we have added 60 more AACs, bringing the total number of AACs to 214. We are on track to reach 220 AACs by 2025.

All AACs have now expanded their programmes beyond the confines of their centres, including at Residents’ Networks, sports centres and community decks. Beyond traditional programmes like Rummy O and morning exercise, AACs now offer programmes such as robotics, carpentry and language classes. More than eight in 10 AACs now offer programmes in at least four out of five domains (social, physical, cognitive, learning and volunteerism).

AACs have also been stepping up engagement of seniors in their assigned boundaries. As of FY2023, senior attendances at AACs have more than doubled to an average of 42 seniors per day, up from an average of 17 seniors per day in FY2021. Close to 80,000 seniors took part in the AAC programmes in FY2023, up from around 17,000 in FY2021.

More seniors are volunteering at the AACs. Since the launch of the Silver Guardian Programme in April this year, SGO has recruited, trained and placed more than 800 volunteers in the AACs. We are on track to reach 2,400 Silver Guardians at the AACs by 2028.

We will continue to invest in our AACs to improve service delivery for seniors. To date, we have set aside $800 million from FY2024 to FY2028 to fund a wider range of AAC programmes and services for seniors such as communal dining and frailty programmes.

In addition, we will be dedicating another $140 million from FY2025 to FY2027 to allow infrastructural upgrades for existing AACs. This will support over 100 existing AACs to expand or refurbish their centres to provide a more conducive and attractive environment for seniors, and expand existing AACs that are operating from smaller sites.

Strengthening Care Support in the Community

We are developing more options for seniors to receive timely and appropriate care where they are residing in the community.

Enhanced HPC+ Service

Since March 2023, the enhanced HPC+ service has been rolled out as a pilot at 11 sites. It is now able to provide more responsive and frequent support to seniors. We have also introduced new features and modules such as the 24/7 technology-enabled monitoring and response element to detect falls and incidents. Findings from the pilot study have been positive, with HPC+ being able to support the demand for higher intensity and frequency of care among seniors. We have also observed lower nursing home admission rates among frailer seniors.

MOH will mainstream HPC+ island-wide by end-2025 to benefit more seniors, including more than 4,500 seniors currently on the existing home personal care service who will be transited to HPC+.

Streamlining Care Journey for Seniors

We are also working to streamline the care journey for seniors. Today, seniors and their families may have to interact with multiple care providers and undergo repeated assessments by each provider.

To provide a more seamless care journey for seniors and their caregivers, we will appoint an Integrated Community Care Provider (ICCP) to oversee care coordination for each region. We have been in consultation with key stakeholders and many of our sector partners are supportive of this effort. The first Request for Proposals for regions without existing providers will be launched by Q4 2024. We will encourage existing providers to come together and form partnerships to perform the ICCP functions, and are working towards implementing this across Singapore by 2026.

Improvements to the Living Environment

Enhancing Homes and Communities to Make Them More Senior-friendly

Under Age Well SG, we are making a bigger and more concerted push to further enhance the living environment to make it safer and easier for seniors to engage in their daily activities.

Under the Silver Upgrading Programme (SUP), around 24,000 seniors across 26 precincts with higher densities of seniors in Ang Mo Kio, Bukit Merah, Queenstown, and Toa Payoh can look forward to new active ageing facilities like therapeutic gardens and fitness trails, barrier-free access, rest points along pathways, as well as dementia-friendly elements to aid in navigation. These senior-friendly enhancements will be progressively carried out over the next five years, with all works estimated to be completed by 2029.

Future projects under the Neighbourhood Renewal Programme (NRP) will also include more senior-friendly amenities as part of estate rejuvenation works. These amenities will enhance the safety and connectivity of our neighbourhoods while helping seniors to stay active and engaged within their community.

Similar upgrading works will also be carried out at selected older private residential estates under the Estate Upgrading Programme (EUP).

Within homes, we have expanded the Enhancement for Active Seniors (EASE) programme to offer a wider range of senior-friendly features.

From 1 April this year, seniors can choose from 11 different fittings, including newly introduced fittings such as foldable shower seats, the Home Fire Alarm Device (HFAD), lowered toilet entrance kerbs, and handrails at multi-step flat entrances, to create a safer environment at home that supports ageing-in-place.

Since the programme’s launch in July 2012, more than 293,000 households have had senior-friendly fittings installed in their flats, either in conjunction with the Home Improvement Programme, or through direct application to HDB. Fittings offered under EASE are heavily subsidised, and flat owners pay as low as 5% of the cost of the chosen fittings, depending on their flat type.

For vulnerable seniors living in public rental flats, we will progressively expand the provision of the wireless alert alarm system to all public rental households with at least one senior aged 60 and above from early 2025. Seniors who press the alert device in their homes will be connected to CareLine, a 24/7 hotline that responds to callers in distress. The expansion is expected to benefit around 26,800 more seniors living in around 170 rental blocks.

We also expanded our housing options for seniors.

Harmony Village @ Bukit Batok, Singapore’s first Community Care Apartment (CCA) project, will be completed by October 2024. CCA is a public housing typology that pairs senior-friendly housing with on-site social activities and care services that can be customised according to the senior’s care needs. Seniors living in CCAs will be supported by a community manager who will facilitate light social programming, basic health checks, assistance with simple household fixes, and round-the-clock emergency monitoring and response service.

At the upcoming October sales exercise, the fourth CCA project featuring 260 CCAs will be launched in MacPherson.

By 2030, we will launch up to 30 CCA projects, if the model of care provision proves to be effective and scalable. These projects will be in different locations across Singapore, so that more seniors can have the option to spend their golden years in neighbourhoods that they are familiar with.

Friendly Streets

Commuting, especially within the local neighbourhood, is an integral part of the daily living experience of our seniors. We have thus introduced the Friendly Streets initiative, which will make our neighbourhood roads more pedestrian-friendly with features such as: more barrier free crossings, more road humps and raised zebra crossings to slow down traffic, and longer and more frequent green-man signals.

As of September 2024, we have completed two Friendly Streets pilots at Ang Mo Kio Street 31 and West Coast Road. Works on the other three Friendly Streets pilot locations are ongoing and will be progressively completed by 2025. We have also commenced engagements with the local communities for the next batch of Friendly Streets in 10 more towns as announced at MOT’s Committee of Supply 2024. By 2030, the Friendly Streets initiative will be expanded to all towns to make walking and cycling safer, more inclusive and comfortable for seniors and the community.

Beyond Friendly Streets, improvements will also be made to commuter infrastructure over the next 10 years to support walking as the first- and last-mile mode of commuting, improve public transport experience, and support seniors commuting in the community. They include:

Building more covered linkways to connect MRT stations to Friendly Streets and key amenities nearby;

Upgrading more bus stops with senior-friendly features such as additional seats with arm and back rests, and ensuring these are wheelchair accessible; and

Retrofitting more pedestrian overhead bridges with lifts to provide barrier-free access, especially those near public transport nodes and healthcare institutions.

More details can be found on www.agewellsg.gov.sg. Together with the efforts of the community and the family, we will continue to make Singapore a home where seniors can age well in their homes and communities, while remaining connected to their loved ones.

MINISTRY OF HEALTH

MINISTRY OF NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

MINISTRY OF TRANSPORT

12 OCTOBER 2024