Greater Support for Disadvantaged Groups to Adopt Healthier Lifestyles

1.          One key area that the new cross-agency HealthySG Taskforce, led by Senior Parliamentary Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs and Ministry of Health, Mr Amrin Amin, will do is to focus our health promotion efforts to the needs and circumstances of individuals from disadvantaged groups.

2.          Members of the Taskforce, which held its first meeting on 22 November 2018, discussed and agreed to this priority. The Taskforce¹ recognises that improving the health of Singaporeans is a major and important undertaking that requires everyone to work together – across the government and the community.  The Taskforce has identified two broad areas of focus:

• Better engagement of the under-reached and disadvantaged groups, such as the lower-income groups, and provide them with greater support through tailored policies and programmes, to increase their adoption of healthier lifestyles.

• New solutions to make healthy living an integral aspect of our daily lives, underpinned by environmental changes, technology advancements and behavioural insights. An example is providing timely information and reminders to help individuals make the healthy choice.

3.          The Taskforce recognises that more needs to be done to customise our mainstream health promotion efforts to the needs and circumstances of individuals from disadvantaged groups. With a more tailored service delivery and programmes on the ground, disadvantaged groups can be empowered to live healthier lifestyles and improve their health in the long term.

4.          As part of its efforts, the Taskforce will work closely with community partners to establish ways to make healthier foods more available and accessible to lower-income families. This includes encouraging donors to fund or prepare food donation packs with healthier products, as well as guiding families to purchase healthier foods and prepare healthy meals at home. The Taskforce will also explore how we can better leverage various networks of health ambassadors, community champions and other volunteers in other agencies to reach out and promote health among the community.

5.          The Taskforce will explore how best to encourage Singaporeans to take charge of their own health and make healthy living an aspect of their daily living. This could be done by providing timely information and reminders through the use of technology, to help Singaporeans take steps toward better health.

6.          The government has also taken steps to build a conducive environment for healthy living, through infrastructure such as park connectors and exercise corners, as well as through food-related policies such as the Healthier Dining Programme. Nonetheless, the Taskforce will boost current efforts by exploring greater use of active design and behavioural insights to nudge individuals towards healthier lifestyles, through changes to our lived and built environment.

7.          Another area of focus will be on reducing smoking rates. The Taskforce will explore ways to provide better cessation support, as well as innovative ways to incentivise and nudge smokers towards quitting the habit.

8.          To support Singaporeans in living long and well, everyone must do our part to create a supportive environment and encourage individuals to adopt a healthy lifestyle. The Taskforce will hold public consultations from January to May 2019 to seek views and suggestions from the general public as well as professionals and experts on how we can transform our health promotion efforts to make healthy living the norm for every Singaporean.

MINISTRY OF HEALTH

16 DECEMBER 2018

¹Comprising Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth, Ministry of Health (MOH), Ministry of Transport, Ministry of National Development, Ministry of Social and Family Development, Health Promotion Board, Sport Singapore, People’s Association, Housing Development Board, Urban Redevelopment Authority, MOH Office for Healthcare Transformation, Early Childhood Development Agency