3-In-1 Celebrations (Launch Of Senior Citizen's Week, Deepavali And Hari Raya Puasa) In Ang Mo Kio Hospital

21 Nov 2004

By Dr Balaji Sadasivan, Senior Minister of State for Information, Communications and the Arts and Health

Venue: Ang Mo Kio Hospital

Speech By Dr Balaji Sadasivan, Senior Minister Of State For Information, Communications & The Arts And Health At The 3-In-1 Celebrations (Launch Of Senior Citizen's Week, Deepavali And Hari Raya Puasa) In Ang Mo Kio Hospital On 21 Nov 04, At 2.00pm

His Excellency, Dato N Parameswaran, Malaysian High Commissioner

Dr Chan Kin Ming, Chairman Board of Directors, Ang Mo Kio Hospital

Mr Lee Kim Siang, Chairman Thye Hua Kwan Moral Society

Members of the Board of Directors, Ang Mo Kio Hospital

Dr Chong Weng Chiew, Chief Executive Officer, Ang Mo Kio Hospital

Senior citizens

Ladies and gentlemen

Last year, I was invited to Ang Mo Kio Hospital to launch its new logo, and to celebrate Racial and Religious Harmony Day. I am pleased to be here again today to launch the 3-in-1 celebrations, namely launch of Senior Citizen's Week, Deepavali and Hari Raya Puasa, as well as the official partnership between Ang Mo Kio Hospital and the Yellow Ribbon Project.

Yellow Ribbon Project

I am encouraged to hear that Ang Mo Kio Hospital is supporting the Yellow Ribbon Project, as part of its mission to reach out to the community. The Yellow Ribbon Project helps ex-offenders who take responsibility for their own actions and are trying to earn back the trust from family, friends, employers and the community. The project gives the ex-offenders a second chance for a life outside prison.

I believe the Hospital will provide a conducive environment for the reintegration of ex-offenders into society through employment, befriending of elderly patients and as volunteers at the Hospital. Ex-offenders working in the Hospital will be gainfully employed and earning their keep. I understand that Ang Mo Kio Hospital is already in the process of recruiting some ex-offenders, and may also consider hiring their spouses and children who need employment.

Volunteering by ex-offenders requires a commitment of time and may involve skills that the ex-offenders have learnt. Ang Mo Kio Hospital has more than 100 active volunteers in its fold. I am told that Ang Mo Kio Hospital trains their volunteers to equip them with the skills and techniques in the management of patients under their care. All in all, I see this as a win-win situation for the Hospital, the ex-offenders & the community.

Another group that has a wealth of skills and time to volunteer and contribute towards the community are the senior citizens.

Senior Citizen's Week 2004

This year's Senior Citizen's Week theme is "Stay active and involved." This theme encourages all Singaporeans to plan for their golden years, so that they can continue to live healthy lives, be financially stable and have fulfilling lives as grandparents and active senior citizens in the community.

One part of staying active and being involved in our own health is to understand our body better, to know if we have health conditions that need treatment. Health screening can do just that. Today, in conjunction with the start of Senior Citizen's Week, Ang Mio Kio Hospital has organised for you, the senior citizens, screening tests for common disease conditions in the elderly like diabetes and high blood pressure. I hope that you will benefit from the activities that have been organised for you.

Families are sometimes unable to care for their elderly relatives because both husband and wife work full-time. They are worried that their frail & sick elderly relative may fall or have an accident at home. So what do they do? Rather to look for other options of caring for the elderly at home, they choose the easy way out - to send the elderly relative to a nursing home, where they feel the 24-hour care by health professionals will ease their fears. But is this the best option for our elderly relatives? Is this where the elderly prefer to spend the rest of their lives, away from their families? Have we taken their wishes and needs into consideration when making such a decision?

One-Stop Health Resource Centre For Older Adults

That is why the Ministry of Health started the website - One-stop Health Resource Centre for Older Adults. This website is in the recently launched Health & Environment website, which is part of the e-citizen government website.

This website has health information on the effects of aging, the actions that one can do to cope with ageing, and the long-term health services that are available to the older adults.

Keeping active and involved in one's own health requires a commitment to be active in our mind and body. We want older adults to start taking active actions for their health. We want to pass useful information, through this website, to older adults and their families to help them plan for their care in their old age. We want to tell them of the different types of long-term health care services so that they have more choices on long-term care for the older adult. We want to build a community that can make informed decisions for themselves or their family members to enable the elderly to stay in their homes with their children & grandchildren as far as possible. Because at the end of the day, is this not what we want for ourselves - informed choices so that we can hopefully stay with our families and loved ones till the end of our lives?

Conclusion

Today is a special day to pay tribute to our senior citizens. We celebrate this special day with our multicultural patients in a multi racial hospital with its multi religious shareholders, Thye Hua Kwan Moral Society, Chee Hoon Kog Moral Promotions Society, Hindu Endowments Board and Jamiyah Singapore.

I applaud the initiatives started by Ang Mo Kio Hospital under the stewardship of its new Board of Directors and management staff and congratulate them on their spirit and desire to be a community hospital, for the people, by the people. I hope that Ang Mo Kio Hospital will continue to engage partners from the community to come together with the common goal of providing better and co-ordinated care for our elderly patients.

It is now my pleasure to launch the 3-in-1 celebrations and the partnership between Ang Mo Hospital and the Yellow Ribbon Project.