Our Proposal For Improvement

As a way to improve the elderly situation in Singapore, we would like to propose the setting up of a restaurant at all the community centres available in Singapore.

These restaurants will provide nutritious and healthy food for the elderly. They will be able to come out with a suitable diet according to the body condition of the elderly. Different food menu will be prepared daily and the elderly can just make a phone call to inform the staff if they would like to dine- in. This will be beneficial for the elderly especially for those elderly whose daughters and sons are busy working in the daytime. They no longer need to worry about what to cook. Furthermore, these concept will also provide the opportunity for the elderly to interact with the others and be socially active. It beats sitting at the senior citizen corner whereby there will not be ready-made available food.

Besides providing food for the elderly, we will also provide free medical check-up. These will be carried out by volunteers from the medical field. They will go to every restaurant monthly to do thorough body check-up for the people who need it. This service will make the routine body check-up more convenient to the elderly. They no longer need to travel far to have their check-up.

We strongly believe that our proposal is feasible and manageable given sufficient resources and support from the relevant organisations as well as the government since we have always been seeking for solutions to improve the situation of the elderly.

Activities for the Elderly - Good Experience

Several local organisations have arranged/organised activities such as line dancing, morning taichi, petanque lesson, folk's dancing, qigong and etc. Some example of these organisations are:

Country Line Dance Association (Singapore) - http://www.cldas.com/

The Singapore Action Group of Elders - http://www.sage.org.sg/

Retired and Senior Volunteer Programme - http://www.rsvp.org.sg/

Lions Befrienders Service Association(Singapore)-http://www.lionsbefrienders.org.sg/

These activities aimed to keep the elderly socially active and ensure that they do not feel lonely.

Some Senior Citizen doing Taichi at East Coast

Social Dance at Chinatown

Most Toilets are not Elderly Friendly - bad experience

We observe that most of the toilets in Singapore is not user-friendly for the elderly. They should install handbars at both side of the wall so that it is better for the elderly to support themselves and a nonslip mat to prevent them from falling. If we can have a toilet for the disabled, we believe that we can also have a toilet specially meant for the elderly.

No Lift to every floor - bad experience

Certain HDB blocks still do not have lift access to every floor. This is especially hard for the elderly when they have to climb all the way up as they get tired easily.

NHG Polyclinics - bad experience

The National Healthcare Polyclinic provides a range of healthcare services for the elderly. Example of some of these services are:-
-Eye screening
-Day care
-Rehabilitation
-& etc

However other than the eye screening test, the rest of the services are only available at the selected NHG Polyclinics branches. This makes it difficult for the sick and frail elderly to travel to go for their checkup. Sometimes, they even have to wait in the queue for a very long time before they get to see the doctor. It is good if we could provide the elderly with a one stop centre near to their house to do their full body checkup.

http://www.nhgp.com.sg/

Sign boards on the public transportation - bad experience

The purpose of this board is to remind people to give up their seat to the elderly or disabled. Although this sign aimed to remind the passengers to be considerate towards the elderly or disabled by giving up their seats to them, our observations reveal the opposite. In fact, many tend to ignore this sign totally and some even pretended to be sleeping just to avoid giving up their seats.

Our observation further revealed that some of these signs have in fact been vandalised!

Nestle - Looking after the elderly - good experience

Nestle provides food that caters to the diet of the elderly. Since
nowadays, many of these elderly children is busy at work, it is better to keep a bottle of Nestle home. Elderly can gain nutrition easily.

Slippery Floor at HDB deck - bad experience

there are some HDB blocks with the slippery Floor. Even young people will easily slip on rainy days, not to mention about the elderly.
Elderly is feeble, if they accidently fall down by the slippery floor, it might cause seriously injuries to them.

Anlene Gold - good experience

Anlene Gold is a milk products aiming at people aged 52 and above. It helps to reduce
osteoporosis among the elderly and contain nutritious ingredient which is needed by the elderly's body. Please play the video below to see the advertisement.

Walker/Stroller for the Elderly - good experience

We came across this products while searching for video of advertisement for the elderly. It is a walker/stroller meant for the elderly. It has a compartment underneath the seat to store things like water, umbrella and etc. Please play the video to see the product and how it works.

Shelter with Railing - good experience

We have notice that there is many upgrading projects going on at most of the old HDB estates. The government made many improvement to ensure a more user friendly environment for the residents. For example the above shelter with railing walkway has just been built early this year. The railing is able to help the elderly to move from one block to another more easily. They can grip the railing and make their ways between the blocks

Senior Citizen Corner - bad experience

The senior citizen corner is the place where elderly can get together to chat and watch tv. They even have a sink at every senior citizen corner. However, the bad point of these place is that, there is no one to cook and look out for them there. It is just merely a place for gathering between the old folks. Recently, we have notice that there is fewer user of the senior citizen corner. Most elderly seems to prefer to sit either at the park or the coffeeshop. This could be due to the fact that they could not experience the good feeling of using these corner.

Reflexology Stone - good experience

Most elderly normally walk on these reflexology stone as a form of their daily exercise. You can find these type of reflexology stone at almost every housing estate in Singapore. Elderly can exercise themselves, through massage their foot bottom acupuncture point, exercises their whole body. This a way for them to keep fit as well as check their body healthy status(it is because the foot bottom acupuncture points are connected with the body organs.)

Old Folks Home - bad experience

Old Folks Home - Lions Home For The Elders

http://www.lionshome.org.sg/index.htm

what they provide:

-24-hour Nursing and Clinical Care

-Short-term and Long-term Rehabilitation

-Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy

-Resident Social Life

-Social Work and Advocacy

Our view:

-No family support

-No Family love

-they will feel like being abonden by their family members

- fees charge is expensive

-it will make them feel they are useless

Some interesting Links

Below are some interesting links that we find while searching for information for our project.

Diaries of a Senior Citizen

It is a blog written by a senior citizen. It contains entries about his daily life as well as his thoughts for the day.

http://flatted-fifth.blogspot.com/2007/07/diaries-of-senior-citizen.html

Senior Citizen Site

This website focuses on senior citizens and provide information that senior citizen and their children and caregivers can use.

http://seniors-site.com/

News Article on Elderly

The link below is a link to a news article on how North East CDC programme gives free medical equipment to needy elderly.

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/304242/1/.html

Laozhabor

It is a blog written by a local elderly actress

http://www.laozhabor.blogspot.com/

Related Links

Hey people!!! If you are wondering on what gifts to get for your grandparents on special occassion... Fret not. U can click on the following links to get some wonderful gifts for them. =))

http://www.surprise.com
http://www.seniorstore.com/gift-ideas.html
http://www.seniorshoppingnetwork.com/

Here is another video created by a MDIS student for his graduation project on elderly issue. Please click the play button to watch the video.

VIDEOS - "Meeting the Needs of the Elderly in Singapore"

Below is a video of a slide show we found on YouTube entitled "Meeting the Needs of the Elderly in Singapore". The video shows the plight of some of the Singaporean elderly. As the saying goes "a picture speaks a thousand words" so just play it.

Sharifah's story

Hello people. I'm here today to share my real-life story and experience with the elderly people.
Companion is what the elderly seeks for. Loneliness is what they shuns. Yet, given the fast-paced and economic-driven society which we are living in, very oft we forget about the elderly, leaving them alone. Without companion, these elderly people find themselves 'falling into a deep and dark abyss'. This is especially so since most of the elderly people are forbidden from going anywhere by their children. They are left alone, cold, surrounded by nothing but silence. Silence.

I have an aunt from my Mum's side. Every day she will call my Mum in the afternoon or morning to talk to her about everything under the sun. Not gossiping but filling in the loneliness which she felt at home, being left alone when her grandchildren goes to school and her children at work. My mum will entertain her on the phone. The phone call may last up to 45 mins. My mum is more than happy to be talking to her on the phone. She also may feel lonely at times when my dad has gone to work and my brother schooling.

Singapore lifestyle is hectic. As we pursue for excellence in economy, we left behind the elderly, leaving them to suffer alone. Painful for them yet how many of us realised this? Even so, what can we do about it?

Before I end off, let me share a poem that I had written regarding the loneliness experienced by the elderly.

Loneliness- My Companion

There goes the cries
Of the ones I loved
As the sun sets
Bringing life to those tears

I try and cry
I cried and tried
Grasping
For their hands
Reaching to their soul
Yet
Gasping
As the cold wind
Drown me.

Sitting alone
With the whispering wind
My loneliness- my companion
No better than before
Yet

No different than before.

Lin Qian's story

My grandparents are staying alone.
my parents have asked them to stay with us, but they refused by saying,
"we refer to stay alone."
i heard from my aunt,it is because my grandparents don't want to disturb our daily lives. They scared they might be burden to my father. That's why they insist to stay alone.

My parent will go to visit them every weekend. what i noticed is that, my grandparents will look extremly happy, when they see us. They will try to talk everything happened in that week to my parents. everytime, when we left their house, they will send us to the 1st floor and see us leaving. it makes me feel that they really need the care from their children and grandchildren.
they need somebody to talk.

the most common topic from my grandma is that: "it is hard for just only cook for 2 persons, i don't even know how to buy things from the market."
my father also found out that there are always leftover food placed on their table.
Everytime when he ask them to throw the food away, my grandma will say:"Don't waste the food!"

My grandparents' health is not that good, they get sick quite often, and yet they still eat the leftover food. i think this is one of reasons why they get sick so often.

Characteristics of the elderly

Based from our experience with our grandparents, we feel that the elderly tend to be more sensitive. They tend to get upset easily. This feelings is triggered because they feel that they are no longer useful due to their retirement. They feel that they are like a burden to their children as they have to rely on them. Not only that, they also found out the reality that they are no longer as healthy and as strong as last time. The chances of them getting sick is higher, thus in their heart, they will feel that they are the one who needed protection and also care.

We also observe that most senior citizen in Singapore is often left alone by their children who is busy at work. With no one to cook for them they will nomally eat their lunch at the food centre which is not only not nutritious but also expensive. They also have no one to talk and pour their heart to, making them feel even more lonely and miserable.

Positive & Negative Impact of Aging Population upon the Nation

The ageing population had both positive and negative impact upon our nation. Let's first talk about the positive impact of the ageing population. The elderly people can be useful in our society. For instance, they are able to guide the young people through various ways. For example, our Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew is still around to guide the other ministers, given his vast experience, having seen Singapore grow from a tiny island to a succesful first-world nation. Not only that, the elderly people can also assist in taking care of their grandchildren. Thus, this will allow their children to work and thus increasing Singapore's economic productivity and ensuring that Singapore is able to maintain its edge above the other nations.

Well, it is also an undeniable fact that the ageing population do have its negative impact upon our nation. For instance, more facilities for the aged have to be built. These includes more railings, non-slippery floor and many other facilities to assist the aged. These spendings will accumulate to a huge amount which actually derive from the tax which we pay. Thus, this means that we have to pay HIGHER taxes. Given the already high cost of living in Singapore, this will only add strain to our financial capability.

To reduce the impact of the ageing population, the government had came up with various ways. These includes extending the retirement age. The government is also building more homes to housed the elderly people who may not have any family members to take care of them.
To conclude, we would once again like to emphasize on the importance of the senior citizens in our people and plead to all those out there to treasure your parents, grandparents and all the elderly people around you. Take care of them and help Singapore reduce the impact of ageing population.

In the next post, we will go deeper into our subject. Stay tune! :)

-signing off-