Have you heard of Silver Circle - NTUC Eldercare? Nope, it's not having a group of people known as Silver and get them to stand in Circle and neither is it some NTUC supermarket special sale for the elders.
So what is this about? After visiting the Silvercircle NTUC Eldercare, the easiest way for me to explain to you is that it is like Chid care centres to kids, after school care to students. So as the name suggests, it's a day care centre for the elders starting from age of 55 yrs old. Just like most child care/student care centres they are open 5 days a week during office hours and these elders can choose to come to the centre 3-5 days a week.
Some facts about NTUC Eldercare :
- NTUC Eldercare Co-operative Limited was set up in 1997 to provide quality and affordable eldercare services for our seniors in the community.
- The Chairman, Mr Lim Boon Heng, realised at the time that there were no adequate government assistance schemes for elderly Singaporeans.
- NTUC Eldercare is one of 12 Social Enterprises run by National Trades Union Congress. It is a Volunteer Work Organisation and is completely not-for-profit.
- Every year unions continue to raise funds so as to make Eldercare services affordable to more lower income families.
There are a total of 8 branches of such NTUC Eldercare centres around Singapore and we were honored to be able to visit one of the newest and biggest centre at Bedok. Where is it? It is just beside the famous Bedok 85 food market!
A common mistake that people will make is to think that an eldercare centre is actually an old folks home but the fact is that it isn't. These elder care centres take care of them only during the day, provides food, activities and get them socially involved.
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| Morning Exercise to start the day! |
Aging population (and low birth rate) is one of the greatest social issue Singapore is facing. We might not like how this sounds but it's a fact that everyone grows old and it's important to be prepared for retirement and old age. One of the greatest issues that these centres are facing is the resistance by our community.
In my own humble opinion, being Asians we are traditional and we believes in many values and one such is filial piety. A lot of people have a misconception of letting your parents join a day care centre is like not taking care of your parents yourself and that is "wrong". I believe that was how it felt like years ago when child care and student care was started as well.
Running such elder health care centres has always been a tall order. On top of what was mentioned earlier, even searching for a possible location to build a elder care has never been easy. Remember the recent "not in my backyard" incident where residents are against building of nursing home near their place? Worries such as "blocking their views", "Noisy Elders" and even the fear of "high death count" but in my own opinion these people are just worrying about their property prices. #JustSaying
Before I call it a day with the visit I had a short chat with one of the elders at the centre. She is currently 81 yrs old and she has been part of the eldercare for 4 months. She spent 4 days a week at the centre. She shared with me how much she likes the place as she gets to meet new friends and it keeps her busy but on the other hand she too mentioned like in any other social setting there will be elders who are a little more difficult to hang out with. That being said she still enjoys herself at the centre although she did shows a little of helplessness while talking about being at the centre. I believe the society still needs more time to adapt and accept such concept to Eldercare centres.
NTUC Eldercare strive to help seniors lead happy, meaningful, and dignified lives by providing a range of quality and affordable community-based eldercare services and most importantly, helping elderly find the joy in rediscovering themselves.
Do share this piece of information with your friends and families. In fact if you wish to be a volunteer they welcome you too!
Do check out their facebook page as well as website for more information.
Website: www.ntuceldercare.org.sg
Mr.Smith, I'll grow old and so will you. Are you prepared?
1 comments:
thanks for that article, great advices for new users. i’m following most of the mentioned tipps thanks.
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