Having spent the last 16 years working with kindergarten children's education, I am now spending quite a bit of my time working with elderly people.
It is quite a challenge especially those who are weak and sick. I am contributing my time in an old folks rehabilitation centre where many of the folks are stroke patients. Many end up with dementia. It is sad to note that a lot of people take their health for granted. They do not invest in their own health. People as young as 50 are also in this centre. In fact, we have a father and son pair in the centre. These people have mobility problems and as many have slight brain damage, many soon will lose all their memories. We are organising programs to help them regain and reuse their brains but some of them are totally gone! These are the activities: colouring, fixing body parts and jigsaw puzzles, throwing softball into a nearby basket etc etc - activities i taught my teachers to conduct for kindergarten children as part of the children's development. But now we are applying the same principle on old folks - NOT for development but for maintenance!
I'm setting up a wellness centre here in Singapore catering to the needs of people (maybe sick or/and elderly) and teaching them how to live life healthily. Me too is thinking of developing a similar centre in Malaysia (bcos space in SG is too expensive) but not so much for retirement but perhaps for relaxing and rejuvenating life. In my opinion, elderly people should still live with their family members (if possible) rather than to be separated from them. They can come to sch a centre for a period, say 3 weeks or so, to relax/rejuvenate, learn new skills/lifestyles, and then go back to their own families and practice them and live happily and healthily. In this way, the concept of chalets will be applicable.
If you have such a centre in Pontian, I can organise these people to patronise your centre!
Cheers and best of health!
Tan Meng Kwang
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I know a Catholic nun for more than a decade. I worked with her for many years implementing kindergarten programs. I helped her in IT-related areas as well as providing her teachers with training in early childhood pedagogies. After her retirement in late 2006, she was asked to head a Day Rehabilitation Centre to enhance the quality of the program offered. She took up the challenge and went into a totally new field at such an retirement age (she is closed to 70!). She asked for assistance, and I went in to help as a volunteer on a regular basis since early this year.
Running such a non-profit centre is tough, looking after the old and sick, and implementing a program to rehabilitate them is a challenge. But having worked with her in coming out with a program to benefit these sick and often poor old folks is satisfying. I've brought many friends, far and near, to visit the centre to see 'how important it is to keep our body healthy'. Some return to work as a volunteer, others vowed to be 'not like them one day'!
We also have retirement village in Singapore. The government have build blocks of studio apartments for the elderly. These are smaller units of housing (usually 1 room 1 hall) with facilities suitable for the elderly. These units are usually taken up by elderly people (usually couples) who are not living with their children (or having no children). They come with a shorter lease tenure - usually 30 years or so. So old couples sell away their own homes after their retirement, get their money and buy these smaller units which are more elderly-friendly, and hence have sufficient money (after cashing their more expensive houses) to live comfortably after that. I've been to one where there is a wellness centre located on the second level of this studio apartment block. It is run by a church and they recruited many volunteers to organise programs to keep these elderly (and usually lonely) people occupied. There are also other wellness and enrichment programs (eg. calligraphy etc)to keep these elderly folks occupied usefully. Building such a retirement village requires plenty of resources, and it is undertaken by the government here.
Those are bits and pieces of information I've gathered about eldercare in Singapore. Should you or any others in this list wish to know more about the above can contact me personally so that I can facilitate your visit to these places.
Tan Meng Kwang
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Two weeks ago, we had a talk by the 110 yr old lady from Singapore, Sister Teresa Hsu. The topic was "with love, I forgot to grow old". Sister Teresa went for nursing care training at 47, formed an old folks home at 67, started to learn yoga at 69 and at 100 she was working hard on Mandarin. She spent her entire life helping others. At 80 she was still doing the cleaning and caring stuff for those 60's and 70's younger folks. I wish to do the same, volunteering until drop dead at 100. I have found the right place, Tzu Chi Charity organisation, have started there part time for 5 years+. What M Kwong said was true, we have to be smart to take care of our health at an early age. I would like to add, living a life with meaning, purpose and self worthiness only can stretch to 90/100, also only its worth to be still around, haha! Oops, I am speaking for myself, no offence to anyone.
Tong Siew Bee
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