Speech by Minister of State for Health and Manpower, Dr Amy Khor, at the launch of the “On Top of the World- My Journey to Better Health” event on 17 March 2013.

Good afternoon everyone!

1.               Let’s welcome our new Chief Executive of Health Promotion Board (HPB), Mr Zee Yoong Kang. It is his first official event. I am very happy to see everyone here today at this event.

2.               Today, we celebrate International Women’ Day. The theme of today’s event is - “On Top of the World – My Journey to Better Health” - something that Singaporeans like to do – that is travel! Many of us want to see the world.  To be able to travel and see the world, to the first thing is, we need to be in good health.

3.               Most of us work and take care of our families at the same time, in particular the women. If we do not take good care of ourselves, who will take care of our families? Our health matters not just to ourselves, but really also for our family members. That applies to both mothers and fathers. We can’t take of ourselves when we are not well.

4.           Women assume many roles in the family. We may be the cook, the teacher (or the tuition teacher), the nurturer, the confidante, the housekeeper, the disciplinarian or the cheerleader (the person who encourages) of the household. Hence, we have a direct influence on the health of our loved ones. For example, most women are the key decision makers when it comes to household or grocery shopping, when it comes to deciding the menu for our meals. In addition, if we can acquire knowledge on the way to good health, we will be able to share that with our family, cultivate healthy habits ourselves, and in our family members. Today, as you go through the event booths, you will find health messages and tips on healthy living embedded into the various ‘travel destinations’ (or ‘travel hotspots’) around the world, that will help you and your family to take small steps towards a healthy lifestyle.

5.           HPB with the guidance of the Women’s Health Advisory Committee (WHAC), has developed a Women’s Health Programme to help women take charge of their health and to positively influence others to lead a healthy lifestyle. The programme also aims to equip you with the knowledge and the skills to adopt a healthy lifestyle and cope with our hectic schedules and multiple roles as mother, wife, daughter and colleague. We hope to create a healthy women movement and encourage our women to exercise regularly, eat healthily, take care of your mental well-being, don’t smoke and don’t drink excessively and most importantly, go for your regular health screening especially for cervical and breast cancer.

6.           I am heartened to know that the healthy women movement has already blossomed.  We have here with us today, HPB’s Women Ambassadors and members of the WHAC, and they are very good role models. Well done! I want to congratulate and thank these women for coming forward to champion women’s health. Some 30 Women Health Ambassadors have been identified, and they will be trained specifically to be able to promote women’s health related issues. I want to encourage them to start spreading the health message – to their husbands, children, family and friends. We hope to grow this group further and work with more Health Ambassadors who are women, who currently make up 60% of our 5,000-strong Health Ambassadors Network.

Women’s Health 3 year Roadmap

7.           Today, I want to share with you two new initiatives that  HPB will be organising.  Firstly, the BEAM (BCF Encouragement for Active Mammograms) 15 Initiative.

8.         The National Health Survey (NHS) 2010 revealed that 9 in 10 women are aware of the availability of breast and cervical cancer screening tests. But in reality, less than 50% went for regular Pap smears and less than 40% for regular mammography. So, the WHAC aims to encourage our women to go breast and cervical cancer screening particularly our lower income households. That is because according to the NHS2010, women from the lower income households tend to be the ones who go for less screening (cancer and cervical cancer screening. One of the reasons is affordability of such screenings, and another reason is not about the affordability, it is the opportunity costs – they have to stop work, or cannot take care of their family if they take time off to go their screenings.

9.         So HPB will be working closely with partners from the people and private sectors to make cancer screening more accessible and affordable to women, particularly those from the lower income households.

10.       First of these initiatives would be our collaboration with the Breast Cancer Foundation (BCF). In conjunction with its 15^th anniversary, BCF, in partnership with HPB, will be launching the BEAM 15 initiative at today’s event. Under this 2 year programme, BCF is funding $300,000 so that women from lower income households can receive free mammograms. HPB and BCF will be working closely with each other to identify women and send invitation letters to them to go for mammograms. In addition, HPB will bring the mobile mammogram services – the Mammobus – we have one just outside – bringing it to more places in the heartlands and the community, to make it more accessible, so as to encourage more women to go for screening. HPB is also going to organise mammoferry services (organise bus shuttle services to ferry women to screening locations) at selected estates to bring these women to the screening centres. Mrs Noor Quek, President of BCF, will be speaking more about BEAM 15 in detail in her speech. I would like to congratulate BCF on their 15^th anniversary and I would also like to thank them for their generosity and partnership. I am sure that the funds will help those in need take better care of their health, especially those from the lower income hoursholds, so that they can have earlier detection and their chance of curing is much better.

11.         To empower women to become ‘change agents’ and influence their family and friends towards healthy living, we will launch of the Holistic Women’s Health Series. To provide the necessary knowledge and skills to our women. HPB will also be conducting a series of interactive workshops focusing on holistic women’s health. These workshops will provide an intimate and relaxed setting for women to discuss and address their personal health concerns on a wide variety of topics including physical activity, nutrition, mental well-being, smoking, breast and cervical cancer screening, chronic disease, smoking, falls, dementia, osteoporosis and women’s sexual health . 

12.         We will be launching the Women’s Health Series today and I would like to invite all of you to sign up for the workshops which will be conducted at this event. Each participant will be able to receive your very own health booklet - “My Journey to Better Health”. This booklet provides medical and health information and an easy-to-use health record booklet, where you can record your personal and medical information and the health screenings that you have to go through. Just like the health booklet for babies but this is for women at different stages of life,

National Health Surveillance Survey 2012

13.         Good health promotion programmes and initiatives need to be coupled with a reliable system of health monitoring and surveillance to evaluate their effectiveness of these programmes. Hence, it is important that my Ministry conducts regular national surveys, such as the National Health Surveillance Survey 2012 which is currently underway, to collect information on the knowledge attitudes and practice of health screenings such as breast cancer and cervical cancer screening to monitor the health of the population as well as to plan and evaluate health promotion programmes and health care services. The information collected from the survey will help us in planning further initiatives and programmes to promote health for the population. If someone knock on your door for this survey, please give your full support and cooperation by participating.

Conclusion

14.         I would like to thank the members of the WHAC for your guidance and support; in fact the Health Booklet is really a great effort of the WHAC. I want to thank our Women Ambassadors for your passion and inspiration; and our partners, particularly BCF for your generosity. 30 Women specifically to promote good health in our women.

15.         I would also like to thank all the women, as well as the men who accompanied the women, here today for coming out to join us. I hope you can have a wonderful experience and spread the message to your loved ones and friends.

16.       Thank you very much.