Plans to Encourage Seniors to Adopt Active Ageing Lifestyle

8 Dr Wan Rizal asked the Minister for Health (a) what are the Ministry's plans to encourage seniors to adopt an active ageing lifestyle; and (b) whether such plans include (i) collaborating with the People's Association to convert Residents' Network to Active Ageing Centres in the day and (ii) setting up volunteering opportunities for seniors.

The Senior Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Health (Ms Rahayu Mahzam) (for the Minister for Health): Mdm Deputy Speaker, over the past two months, the healthcare family has been discussing these key work streams that the Member has raised at our Work Plan seminar.

As explained to the House before, we have three inter-related healthcare systems and the aged care system is a key one we are prioritising for review. Encouraging seniors to adopt active lifestyles and practice good health habits is the most sustainable and effective way to address the challenge of an ageing population with rapidly rising number of people with chronic and other illnesses.

To do so, we need to strengthen our ageing infrastructure in the community. Many of our initiatives are laid out in a recent 2023 Action Plan for Successful Ageing. Further, we are expanding the number of the Active Ageing Centres (AACs) and transforming their operating model to support healthy ageing for seniors.

But AACs cannot work alone, and close collaboration with other agencies, such as the Health Promotion Board (HPB) and the People's Association (PA) will be critical and we seek the support of all Advisors.

For example, to outreach to seniors more effectively and extensively, we need to tap on all community volunteers, whether they are from the Agency for Integrated Care (AIC) or PA. To enable seniors to lead an active lifestyle, HPB and PA need to organise suitable activities, and be as inclusive as possible.

Promoting senior volunteerism will be an important thrust. For example, the expansion of AACs will offer more volunteer roles such as buddying and befriending. The Ministry of Health (MOH) and the Council of Third Age will also roll out the enhanced Silver Volunteer Fund in the second half of 2023 to support the growing network of volunteer host organisations offering meaningful senior volunteer opportunities.

Mdm Deputy Speaker: Dr Wan Rizal.

Dr Wan Rizal (Jalan Besar): Thank you, Mdm Deputy Speaker. I thank the Senior Parliamentary Secretary for her reply. With regards to my Parliamentary Question, I actually asked about whether we can convert the Residents' Network (RNs) into AACs, especially during the day. And I would like to ask will the Ministry possibly study this of converting such RNs to AACs and maybe study its impact on promoting active ageing for seniors.

My second question is in relation to setting up volunteering opportunities for our seniors, which the Senior Parliamentary Secretary mentioned earlier. Can she elaborate on what types of volunteering activities will be made available and how do we ensure these opportunities are suitable and accessible for the seniors of varying abilities?

Ms Rahayu Mahzam: Mdm Deputy Speaker, the RNs are intended to be satellites for the AACs to reach out to more seniors. We are already in communication with PA to open up the spaces. It will really depend on the different areas because we are looking at where there are gaps, and we are trying to fill in those gaps.

We will be providing funding for the AACs to run the active ageing programmes. This is something that we will definitely keep track of. There will be key performance indicators (KPIs) to be achieved to see whether the AACs are keeping up with the outcomes that are targeted.

We will definitely be working with PA and depending on the different areas, we will be working with the advisors. We look forward to Members' support on this.

In respect of the volunteer opportunities, the Silver Volunteer Fund that I mentioned is intended to create a diverse range of senior-centric volunteering opportunities and this can include opportunities to do mentoring to high-risk youths from low-income families and also, to help caregivers of special needs children with art and music therapeutic programmes. AACs are also volunteering opportunities for the seniors to organise the active ageing programmes for fellow seniors and reach out to those seniors who are in isolation.

We will continue to work with partners to ensure that there are a whole host of different types of volunteer activities that will be able to attract seniors with different abilities.

Mdm Deputy Speaker: Mr Edward Chia.

Mr Edward Chia Bing Hui (Holland-Bukit Timah): Thank you, Mdm Deputy Speaker. I would like to ask, typically, the participation at AACs is by mostly women compared to men. I would like to ask what are MOH's plans to drive higher participation rates amongst senior men, especially since there are higher cases of isolation among senior men.

Ms Rahayu Mahzam: This is indeed the problem that many of us face. We do not have the monopoly on the ideas on this; in fact, that is why we are working very closely with partners, as well as with the different communities to understand what the different demographics or interest are. Perhaps, with this collaboration with partners on the ground, we will be able to come up with activities that will attract these seniors.

We are also trying to bring in these seniors to bring out their other friends, so perhaps, that is also one way to enhance participation from those who have not traditionally included themselves in these activities.

Mdm Deputy Speaker: Mr Dennis Tan.

Mr Dennis Tan Lip Fong (Hougang): Thank you, Mdm Deputy Speaker. I thank the Senior Parliamentary Secretary for the replies she has given so far.

She touched much on the help from volunteers and volunteer networks. Can I just weigh in to ask the Senior Parliamentary Secretary, is MOH confident of the current manpower resourcing, staff resourcing of our AACs, given their role that MOH has given them, as in charge of cluster support? Particularly, they need to do extensive house visits to outreach to many units and a lot of these seniors may not be as amenable to their neighbours to visit the AACs on a regular basis. They may want to keep to themselves, for example, as I have said in the speech during the Healthier SG Motion and also, in light of the obligations that the AACs will have to undertake to support the Healthier SG.

Ms Rahayu Mahzam: I thank the Member for the question. This is a work-in-progress clearly.

We do have very good partners on the ground who have been around for a long time and have built relationships with the seniors, so we will be tapping on that expertise. But capability will continue to be built and we need to do so, especially in light of Healthier SG as we reach out to more people. As mentioned, the effort is also in tapping on community volunteers and partners. That is why it is so important to work with grassroots, with partners on the ground and also to bring in seniors who are already connected and convert them to be volunteers themselves, so that they can also reach out.

I think this is a whole-of-community effort and we will definitely have to reach out for different ideas. There are already engagements on the ground, there are already efforts to build capabilities, but this will continue to be a work-in-progress.