Counselling for Family Members of Patients in Palliative Care
Ministry of HealthSpeakers
Summary
This question concerns the accessibility and awareness of counselling services for family members of palliative care patients as raised by Ms Joan Pereira. Senior Minister of State Dr Amy Khor Lean Suan explained that multidisciplinary teams provide integrated support for caregiving and grief, often starting as early as the point of referral. While specific uptake is not tracked separately from holistic care, families are informed of available psychosocial and pastoral services upon admission to ensure their needs are met. The Ministry of Health also collaborates with partners like the Singapore Hospice Council on community engagement programmes to raise public awareness of end-of-life issues. These ongoing efforts focus on improving the quality of end-of-life care and ensuring that family members receive necessary support throughout the patient’s journey and during bereavement.
Transcript
1 Ms Joan Pereira asked the Minister for Health (a) what is the process for family members of patients who are under palliative care to access counselling services; (b) at what stage of the patient's end journey will counselling be provided for the family members; and (c) what is being done to create awareness of this service.
The Senior Minister of State for Health (Dr Amy Khor Lean Suan) (for the Minister for Health): Palliative care providers have multidisciplinary care teams that support patients on palliative care services and their family members. These teams comprise staff with experience in counselling, such as medical social workers, counsellors or pastoral care staff.
The care teams will keep in close touch with family members, assess their needs and provide the necessary support for the patient and the family. This includes support to help family members cope with caregiving and grief management, as well as bereavement care after the patient's passing. Care teams may also link up families with other support organisations and resources.
The Ministry of Health (MOH) has been working with community partners to promote public awareness about palliative care and End-of-Life (EOL) conversations. For example, in conjunction with World Hospice and Palliative Care Day, the Singapore Hospice Council (SHC) held an inaugural community engagement event in October last year to raise public awareness on the topic. We will continue to work with our community partners on such public outreach and education efforts.
Mr Speaker: Ms Joan Pereira.
Ms Joan Pereira (Tanjong Pagar): I thank the Senior Minister of State for the reply. May I know what is the uptake rate for this service and will there be more publicity for such services because it really will help assure the family that there is care for them?
Dr Amy Khor Lean Suan: I thank the Member for her supplementary questions. Indeed, I think this is a very important issue, in particular, due to our ageing population. The uptake of counselling services is not specifically tracked because it is delivered as part of palliative care. Upon admission into palliative care services, the patients and the family members will be made aware of the counselling services available as part of the holistic assessment in recognition of the patients' and the families' needs. This would include their physical, psychosocial as well as their pastoral needs.
For instance, at St Joseph's Home, counselling actually begins at the point of referral of a patient and the family members into palliative care. The multidisciplinary team, which comprises the consultants, nurses as well as social care staff will engage the patient as well as the family members in conversations on advance care planning, EOL preferences, coping with grief and so on. Counselling usually happens as a natural conversation and is a work-in-progress in that sense. It is an ongoing process as part of palliative care.
In terms of promoting the awareness about EOL issues and palliative care services, MOH continues to work with SHC as well as various community partners and providers. For instance, we work with SHC on a community engagement programme. We have a three-year partnership with them from 2017 to 2019 on this community engagement programme to raise awareness among the public about palliative care services as well as EOL issues.
We will continue to do so and extend this outreach in terms of raising awareness and also, improving the quality of EOL care and extend this to psychosocial support. That will include supportive counselling of patients and their family members.