Depression Amongst Elderly

16 January 2012

Question No. 53

Name of person: Mr Patrick Tay Teck Guan

Question

To ask the Minister for Health with the rise of mental illness and depression amongst the elderly, whether our nursing and elderly homes have sufficient expertise and specialisation in psychiatric care to care for these residents.

Answer

1. The Community Psychogeriatric Programme (CPGP) was launched in 2007 to improve the mental health of the elderly through community partnerships. Currently, there are three CPGP teams that train staff of eldercare agencies, including nursing homes, to understand and manage mental health problems in the elderly including screening their vulnerable clients for dementia and depression. To date, CPGPs have trained over 1200 staff from the Intermediate and Long-Term Care (ILTC) sector through more than 100 training sessions.

2. There is currently a dedicated dementia nursing home, Apex Harmony Lodge, as well as three nursing homes with dementia-friendly wards and trained staff. These four homes provide up to a total of 515 dementia-specific beds.

3. To cater to those with other chronic mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, there are currently three psychiatric nursing homes in operation with a total of about 650 beds. A new psychiatric nursing home at Buangkok is targeted for completion in 2013, and will bring the total number of psychiatric nursing home beds to close to 1000.

4. We will continue to enhance the capabilities of existing ILTC services to better cater to the elderly with mental illness and dementia. For example, we will be upgrading more nursing homes with dementia-specific wards, while new nursing homes and replacement nursing homes will all have dementia-friendly wards. We will also be building more psychiatric nursing homes with dementia wards as well as psychiatric rehabilitation and short stay facilities. To support these new initiatives, we will also be working to increase the pool of mental health-trained doctors, nurses and allied health professionals.

5. Strengthening the ILTC sector is only part of the solution. We have also been taking steps to improve early detection and treatment of elderly persons with dementia, as early treatment will help the elderly to remain independent and active for as long as possible. We are also working with various stakeholders to develop other community based mental health services to increase early detection and support persons with mental illness in the community.

6. I hope to share with you more details on our plans in the coming months, once they are finalised.