Outcome of Pilot Care Close to Home Service Model in HDB Estates
Ministry of HealthSpeakers
Summary
This question concerns the outcomes of the Care Close to Home (C2H) pilot for frail and home-bound seniors in HDB rental estates as raised by Ms Denise Phua Lay Peng. Minister Gan Kim Yong explained that while the 15-site pilot was accessible, a review found its services did not always align with the diverse health and social needs of its 6,000 clients. To address these gaps, the Ministry of Health will transit the pilot to a new eldercare centre service model that will be rolled out progressively between May 2021 and 2024. This new model provides a common suite of services, such as active ageing and befriending, with additional layers like day care or community rehabilitation available for those with higher care needs. The Ministry will work with stakeholders to ensure a smooth transition of current clients to relevant services, such as home personal care, to further support ageing-in-place within the community.
Transcript
7 Ms Denise Phua Lay Peng asked the Minister for Health what are the outcomes of the pilot Care Close to Home service model for the elderly frail and home bound residents in HDB public rental estates.
Mr Gan Kim Yong: Launched in 2014, the Care Close to Home (C2H) pilot aimed to assist seniors in HDB public rental estates to age-in-place. Nurse-led care teams were deployed to selected precincts, with a focus on supporting seniors in their activities of daily living and monitoring of medical conditions, in their homes. The pilot is currently running at 15 sites across Singapore, with around 6,000 enrolled clients.
The Ministry of Health undertook a review of the scheme from 2018 to 2020. Based on our findings, clients perceived the services to be easily accessible. However, we also found that the services did not always meet clients’ needs. For example, the majority of clients enrolled onto C2H were relatively well and did not require assistance with activities of daily living which the programme focused on. On the other hand, clients with complex health and social needs required deeper and more intensive services beyond what C2H was able to provide.
In order to address seniors’ needs better and scale up the services to all seniors in the community, we will be transiting the C2H pilot to the new eldercare centre service model. Under the new model which will be rolled out progressively at eldercare centres in phases from May 2021 to 2024, all eldercare centres will provide a common suite of services, comprising active ageing programmes, befriending or buddying, and information and referral to care services. On top of this set of common services, centres may also layer on additional care services such as day care or community rehabilitation to cater to seniors who are frailer.
As part of the transition, the Ministry of Health will work with seniors, their caregivers, the C2H and eldercare centre providers to transit clients smoothly to the relevant services. For example, seniors requiring greater social support will receive befriending and buddying services, while those with higher care needs and require assistance with their activities of daily living will be referred to the appropriate care services such as home personal care. With this transition, we hope to better enable our seniors to age-in-place within the community.