SPEECH BY MR ONG YE KUNG, MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND COORDINATING MINISTER FOR SOCIAL POLICIES, AT THE WORKWELL LEADERS AWARDS AND GALA DINNER, 24 APRIL 2026

Ms Anthea Ong, Founder and Chairperson of WorkWell Leaders

WorkWell Leaders Board of Directors

Ladies and gentlemen

1.             A very good evening to everybody.

2.             The last time I attended this event, it was in the middle of a General Election, so I took one night off campaigning to attend this event, and I am glad the people voted for me still, and I am here today.

3.             I must say, every time I open my apps, switch on the TV, listen to people speak, it is all about tech and AI, everywhere, everywhere you turn. And I have no doubt that we are at the cusp of human history, doing something unimaginable, and the progress is exponential. And people ask, “What is the limit of that progress?” It is not the computer chips, it is not the human brain, because the AI is self-learning, it is probably electricity. I mean it as a real analysis – the limit is electricity. But I venture to guess there is another limit, which is the human ability to say enough is enough. I enjoy all this tech, but at some point, I want to be human. And ask that of any patient in our hospital, ask that of any student in the school, at some point they say, I would like to be treated by a human doctor, cared for by a human nurse, attend an event with humans sitting around me. That is it. I think the impact on human beings is going to be tremendous.

4.             Over the past 20 to 30 years, you see a spike in the prevalence of mental conditions throughout the world. So, it is not because of Singapore's Primary School Leaving Examination. It is something far wider that is happening all around the world. And I think there are only a few things that are driving this. One is, of course, processed food, HPB’s (Health Promotion Board) CEO is here. And the other is technology, and you can actually see it and there is evidence and literature showing that how social media or the use of technology, how it, over time, affects the mental well-being of people, and especially children.

5.             The government has said mental health is one of our priorities. What does that really mean? Given the context that I just put out, I will say a few things will be top priority for us to implement. I will probably give a more comprehensive speech come World Mental Health Day later this year, but I will say number one, when you look at how in the realm of mental health, how we have allocated resources, you will find that there is some problem. We have already put out the mental health framework, which is by four tiers - Tier One: being preventive, Tier Two: counselling, Tier Three: you need some intervention, Tier Four is serious, you probably need inpatient services. When you look across Tier One to Tier Four, I think most people are facing challenges at the Tier One and Two level.

6.             But today, when you look at our resources, it is misaligned. We are putting our most resources at the Tier Four level. All our hospitals are wonderful, but guess which hospital in Singapore is the biggest? It is actually the Institute of Mental Health, with 2,000 beds. I think one of our priorities is to realign the resources so that Tier One, Tier Two gets a lot more support, because prevention is now the order of the day.

7.             So that is one area. Another area which is a little bit more controversial, but maybe it is not so now. Something I spoke about recently, is that we got to do something about technology and social media. I think we all know in our hearts, especially those of us with young children, we know it is affecting them. Social media, there is good and there is bad, just like all technology. There's a lot of good in social media, in education, in linking up children with their friends, in organising parties. But we know there is an impact. Many countries have announced they are going to ban social media for adolescents. We did the obvious. From zero to 12 years - what are our Ministry of Health guidelines? I see many parents are following the guidelines very religiously. Zero to 18 months, zero screen time; 18 months to six years, one hour a day; seven to 12 years, two hours a day. Many parents are following that.

8.             When it comes to adolescents, we stop there because even the tech companies say this is the age where you can have a social media account. But that is when things get complicated. Do we follow what other countries do and start banning adolescents from accessing social media? It is not straightforward. There are lots of criticism. I do believe, overall, there is a net benefit when you do that, but there are also downsides. So, when the MOH expert panel gathers and looks at the problem in detail, they say, it is not social media per se that is the problem, it is the features. What features? Number one was the lack of feature of verifying your age. Number two, content, some of the content is a problem. Number three is the fact that adults and strangers, can directly message an adolescent. Number four, autoplay, and number five, algorithm feeding of content to you. And when you combine all, I think there is a significant impact.

9.          So, another way to look at it, we would not rule out banning but on the other hand, let's also discuss with the tech companies on the features that may be harmful to our children, so that we can protect their mental well-being. So, this is another piece of work that we are collaborating closely with the Ministry of Digital Development and Information to work on.

10.      The final area that I think is important, is to get all you guys and more corporates to support this movement. If we believe what I say that there are four Tiers of intervention and resources are misaligned. So, Tier one, Tier Two requires more investment, and actually the best people to invest is not so much the government, but community, society and companies. And I do not think we are talking about huge investments. It is investment in terms of your practices, investments in terms of your commitment. I have three requests today.

11.      Request number one, I think we should really provide basic training to most of our supervisors on mental health. It is just like we used to train our supervisors on Kaizen, on Six Sigma, on workplace health and safety. I think we should train them in mental health. It is not just to provide mental health first aid, so that when you see someone with a mental health challenge, it is not different from someone with a chronic disease, but as a peer, as a supervisor, as the Human Resources in the company, I know what to do, I know what to say, I know how to bring you in, take you into confidence and provide you with peer support. The prevalence rate is so high that I think it is worthwhile for every organisation to do this. Then, we will have effective intervention at the Tier One, Tier Two level.

12.      Number two is to get rid of all the stigma about mental health in your company. I know most CEOs will say we agree there's no stigma, but you got to dig deeper. There will be practices. Stigma is still there. For example, it is still common that during an interview for a new hire, they will be asked, “Do you have a mental health issue.” There will be still companies where if you have a mental health history, is somewhere in your dossier, in your record. So, we got to think through how to do this. Maybe it is in the record, but it should be something out of concern, rather than as a stigma, as something that can be held against the staff.

13.      And finally, focus on what you do best. I think for good mental well-being, it is important that you know that when I go to work, it is not a chore. This is not imposed on me, but this is a platform. My company is a platform for me to do good, to have agency in my life, to serve customers, to bring happiness to other people, teach, to cure, to treat, to comfort, sell something delightful to others, to service, and that sense of purpose is actually so integral to mental well-being. I am concerned that more and more people drag their feet to school or to work, and when you do so, you demand work-life balance because work is a chore, you need life to balance the chore. But as Anthea said, do not go for work-life balance, it should be work-life harmony. Because work is life and life is work. But you can achieve that by the companies giving their people a purpose when they go to work. If we can do all this step by step, government, corporates, individuals, healthcare system working together, I think gradually we can chase the elephant out of the room. Thank you very much for your attention.