Combined wellness and care centres for Nee Soon's elderly

Three new wellness and care centres for the elderly will be set up in Nee Soon GRC, said grassroots adviser and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Law K. Shanmugam yesterday.

To be located in Housing Board void decks in Chong Pang, Nee Soon Central and Nee Soon East, they will combine wellness services such as gyms and health screenings with day care, dementia care and nursing care.

The first, set to open early next year, is a partnership between St Luke's ElderCare, the Ministry of Health, the Agency for Integrated Care, Alexandra Health System, the HDB and Chong Pang grassroots organisations.

Ageing is an issue that all of Singapore must focus on, and one focus is providing health-care services, said Mr Shanmugam.

"You really don't want to take them out of the community, you want to provide the services in the community, in place," he said. The upcoming wellness centres serve this purpose.

The minister was speaking at the Nee Soon South community health fair yesterday.

There, Nee Soon South division signed a memorandum of understanding with National Healthcare Group Polyclinics.

The collaboration will cover areas such as psychology services, diet and nutrition advice, care-giving, as well as clinical pharmacy and diagnostic services.

With residents' consent, polyclinics there will also share data with grassroots organisations. This is so that residents with diabetes, for example, can receive follow-up visits to ensure that their condition is under control.

This is part of Nee Soon's campaign to celebrate the contributions of the pioneer generation, aged 65 and above this year.

The campaign includes activities for the elderly throughout the year such as health talks and traditional Chinese medicine consultations.

A door-to-door outreach programme will also explain the health-care benefits in the Pioneer Generation Package to elderly residents in languages which they understand.

Yesterday, such efforts were going strong elsewhere in Singapore.

At Nanyang Community Club in Jurong West, a dumpling festival celebration was accompanied by an explanation of the Pioneer Generation Package in Mandarin and Hokkien by grassroots adviser Alvin Yeo.

In Hong Kah North, some 300 Secondary 3 students from Swiss Cottage Secondary School visited 6,000 residents aged 50 and above at home.

The students promoted awareness of the Pioneer Generation Package and Singapore's health- care system, and conducted a survey of the senior citizens' wants and needs.

janiceh@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on June 2, 2014.
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