SPEECH BY MR ONG YE KUNG, MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND COORDINATING MINISTER FOR SOCIAL POLICIES, AT THE OFFICIAL OPENING OF VANGUARD HEALTHCARE HOME, 5 OCTOBER 2026

Ms Teoh Zsin Woon, Chairperson of Vanguard Healthcare

Ms Jennie Chua, Former and Founding Chair of Vanguard Healthcare

Ms Chan Wei Ling, CEO of Vanguard Healthcare

Distinguished guests

Ladies and gentlemen

1.             I am happy to join you today at the official opening of Vanguard Care Home and Compass Home at Hougang. These two new Vanguard Homes mark a new chapter in how we organise mental health care in Singapore.

Right Care, Right Setting

2.             For decades, we have had young patients suffering from a range of mental health conditions – schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder – who lacked homes and social support, and they had to be cared for in an inpatient facility.

3.             The Institute of Mental Health, or IMH, served that purpose. IMH has been Singapore’s largest psychiatric hospital, and in fact, I believe it is the hospital with the largest inpatient facility, with close to 2,000 beds. Today, it continues to provide acute psychiatric treatment and care for patients with severe and complex mental health conditions.

4.             Patients stay in IMH for a long time, some for over 10, or even 20 years. These patients do not only treat IMH as their home, they treat the healthcare workers as their family members. IMH will organise memorials from time to time for patients that pass on. I attended one of them. There were a small handful of relatives and family members of the deceased, but the attendees closest to the patients and who shed the most tears were the healthcare workers.

5.             These patients on long-term stay are getting older. The median age of long-term stayers is 58. 83 patients are already aged 70 and above. For many of these patients, their conditions have stabilised, and they get agitated much less frequently, as they become more frail and cognitively weaker. At the same time, we also have young patients who actually, over time, with modern medicine, they stabilise and they also become less agitable and also able to accept rehab a lot more positively.

6.             So increasingly, both these group of patients, older ones who over time stabilise as they become more frail, younger ones who receive rehab well and also stabilise, these patients require more supervision, nursing care and assistance with daily living, rather than acute psychiatric care. Hence, the clinical environment at IMH may no longer be the best setting to support them and their long-term care.

7.             Hence, we started to right-site these patients. For many, this means step-down residential facilities that are more home-like, such as Sunlove and St Andrew’s Nursing Home. There, patients can continue to receive nursing care and support, while participating in rehabilitation and daily activities that help them regain skills, confidence and independence. In doing so, we have over the years gained significant capabilities in caring for patients with significant mental health needs outside a hospital setting.

8.             This experience demonstrated that mental health care cannot consist only of hospitals at one end and independent living at the other. We need a continuum of care, with different settings providing different levels of support as a person’s needs change. And the demand for the broad middle will grow as existing patients age, as their conditions stabilise and we see a wide range of different conditions, all of which have different kind of needs.

A New Model at Vanguard

9.             Vanguard Healthcare will help us meet this national demand. It was established by MOH as a public operator to test out new care models, drive innovation, strengthen public sector capabilities, and support capability-building within the sector. 

10.          Vanguard Healthcare offers a new model of care. Under this model, Vanguard will co-locate a nursing home and a rehabilitation home for mental health, so patients can transit more easily between the two homes, if their needs evolve.

11.          The Vanguard Care Home comprises residents with chronic but stable psychiatric conditions who continue to require 24-hour nursing care. There is no age requirement, although such patients tend to be older. Since commencing operations in May this year, the home has admitted 151 residents, all of whom have settled in well. The home has a bed capacity of 257, and will take in more residents progressively over the next months.

12.          Complementing this is the Vanguard Compass Home, which focuses on rehabilitation and recovery for those with moderately stable mental health conditions who are working towards greater independence and reintegration into the community. Similarly, there is no age requirement for admission. Since opening in July this year, Vanguard Compass Home has welcomed 14 clients and they have bed capacity of 48. I spoke to a few of them just now and asked them how is it like living here versus IMH. And they said here is much more comfortable. And I think, the sense I feel is the greater autonomy, and because given their conditions, greater dignity. I think that's important for their recovery.

13.          Compass Home will help its clients rebuild daily routines and skills, take part in vocational training and job matching, reconnect, where possible, with family, and develop confidence to reintegrate into the wider community.

Recovery Takes Different Forms

14.          No two mental health patients are the same. Each individual has his or her own medical challenges, requiring a tailored treatment and recovery plan. We need to recognise that recovery is varied, and cannot be defined by a single outcome.

15.          For one person, it may mean living independently in the community. For another, it may mean being able to manage more daily activities. For others, it may be to maintain some social connections. Whatever the outcome, we will try to achieve and we will try to also support them. Every bit of recovery is an improvement in their quality of life and well-being.

16.          Recovery will also require the support of the wider community. I want to thank the neighbouring residents, schools, agencies, and the everyone for your understanding and acceptance of Vanguard and its residents into the neighbourhood. We recognise that sometimes this may require adjustments. Vanguard is committed to being a good neighbour, and we likewise hope that its residents will be treated with dignity and compassion and given the opportunity to live a meaningful life.

17.          I would like to thank everyone who has contributed to making these homes possible. I did not name all of you because all of you are part of the healthcare ecosystem. I wish Vanguard Healthcare every success. Thank you.