Budget 2024 > Latest > Commentary
Ms Carrie Tan (Nee Soon): Mr Chairman, I would like to bring up an area of work called Caregiver Equipping and seek a review on whether MOH or the Ministry of Social Family Development (MSF) should be the lead agency in charge of this.
While MOH rightly takes care of healthcare, the support and enabling of caregivers should be a community effort with the national strategy of ageing-in-place and, hence, should fall within MSF’s purview.
Given the rapidly ageing population, more Singaporeans are finding themselves juggling careers and caregiving. Support for them should be made widely available in their neighbourhoods and not be relegated to healthcare settings or experts, which is costly and unsustainable.
In Khatib, we launched the Caregiver Resource Centre last year to bring capacity-building and a network of peer support to caregivers. Such services should be ramped up quickly so that every caregiver or prospective caregiver can be prepared and equipped to go on this journey whenever it happens.
Many residents shared with me that they were suddenly thrown into a caregiving situation when their aged parents fall ill or have a fall. This was also my experience when my mom was diagnosed with cancer. Luckily, because I have been looking into caregiver provisions and interacting with residents who are caregivers, I found myself much more equipped to know what to do.
I recommend that MOH work closely with MSF to set up community-based caregiver resource centres in every neighbourhood and start training the community with caregiving knowledge and navigation of resources before the care avalanche overwhelms a generation of Singaporeans.
Just like how the Community Emergency and Engagement Committees (C2Es) is a joint effort between the People’s Association and the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), now ubiquitous in many neighbourhoods, preparing citizens with first-aid and first-responder skills, a similar platform can be set up between MSF and AIC to prepare Singaporeans for caregiving.
The natural place to locate such premises is next to polyclinics and hospitals, and I urge MOH to work closely and in consultation with MSF, which oversees social service agencies to work closely together in such programmes.
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