Health Screening for Persons with Disabilities and Special Needs

9 Mr Dennis Tan Lip Fong asked the Minister for Health what efforts have been taken to reach out to and include persons with disabilities and/or special needs in past and ongoing health and screening campaigns.

The Senior Minister of State for Health (Dr Amy Khor Lean Suan) (for the Minister for Health): The Ministry takes an inclusive approach in the implementation of health promotion and disease prevention programmes and campaigns for the population. Such programmes also cater to persons with disabilities and special needs.

The Health Promotion Board's (HPB's) School Health Services (SHS) and School Dental Services (SDS) provide health and dental screening, and immunisation services to students with special needs in Special Education (SPED) schools, in addition to those in mainstream schools. The HPB works closely with the doctors, dentists, parents and staff of the special schools to ensure that these services are delivered in a manner that is appropriate for the students.

Similarly, Response, Early intervention and Assessment in Community mental Health (REACH) teams cover both mainstream schools and special needs schools. REACH teams work with special needs schools to help students with psychological, emotional and behavioural problems. They also provide training and support to allied health staff of special needs schools to strengthen their ability to identify, manage and, if necessary, refer at-risk children to the team for intervention.

HPB's Screen for Life (SFL) programme, which offers age-appropriate subsidised health screening tests for chronic diseases and selected cancers are open to all Singaporeans, including persons with disabilities and special needs, at participating Community Health Assist Scheme (CHAS) general practitioner (GP) clinics.

Health screening is also available in locations such as polyclinics and community centres, which are easily accessible for people with disabilities and their caregivers. In addition, health promotion and education programmes that aim to foster healthy lifestyle habits, including healthy eating and physical activities, target all Singaporeans.

We recognise that persons with disabilities and special needs are a diverse group, with a wide range of disabilities and functional capabilities, and possibly a variety of underlying medical conditions. Some may also require customised preventive health advice, health screening and care, which are best done by their family physicians.

Nevertheless, we will continue to review and finetune our health education and promotion initiatives to meet the needs of our population, including those with disabilities or special needs.

Mdm Speaker: Mr Dennis Tan.

Mr Dennis Tan Lip Fong (Non-Constituency Member): I thank the Senior Minister of State for her answers. The basis for my Parliamentary Question is to find out what are the specific efforts that have been carried out to reach out to persons with disabilities or special needs, with regard to common illnesses that the community faces.

Two supplementary questions: first, does the Ministry consider having specific campaigns to target persons with disabilities and special needs, regarding information on common illnesses and prevention? The reason is because I believe that there may be higher chances that, for such people, especially in certain families, it is quite likely that the illnesses may go undiagnosed for longer periods of time than for normal people.

Second, does the Ministry intend to step up efforts to reach out to these groups of people who are at risk of suffering from, say, breast cancer or dementia, and also by working with the voluntary welfare organisations (VWOs) which are active in these areas?

Dr Amy Khor Lean Suan: Let me say that for the SFL programme, for instance, it is a person-centric letter that is sent out to all Singaporeans and Permanent Residents who are eligible for this programme at various ages and depending on the gender. So, one letter is sent out to females in that year when they are 25 years of age for cervical cancer screening. At age 40, all eligible Singaporeans will be sent a person-centric customised letter for them to go for screening for chronic diseases. It will include people with disabilities or special needs. At age 50, there is another letter for chronic disease as well as for certain cancer screening, such as mammogram, colorectal cancer and so on.

Indeed, these are very targeted. They will also be sent to the people with disabilities and special needs. In many instances, they will probably be able to respond to the letters. In fact, we give them a reminder at the ages of 26, 41 and 51. As I have said, people with disabilities and special needs are a diverse group, with a wide range of disabilities and functional capabilities. So, for some, the caregivers may be able to respond and bring them for health screening.

In addition to that, as I have said, our programmes and campaigns are inclusive. We adopt an inclusive approach. So, for programmes and campaigns, say, "War on Diabetes" where we talk about healthy lifestyle, healthy diet, healthy eating, they are applicable to everybody, including those with disabilities.

We also have some special programmes, for instance, at the Senior Activity Centres or the Senior Care Centres, physical activities for people who are not mobile, on wheelchairs. There are special exercise programmes for them. We work with the operators of the Senior Care Centres, the VWOs and so on, to give health talks and encourage these patients to go for health screening.

So, as I have said, we will bear in mind that even as we review and finetune our health promotion and educational programmes, it will be to meet the needs of the population, including people with disabilities and special needs.