Speech for Minister for the Opening of the LivEnabled Showcase (Finale Event) on 19 November 2011, Saturday, 10.30am

“Enabling Care Givers”

1.    A very good morning to all of you.

2.    I am happy to be here to launch the LivEnabled Showcase. This exhibition is the finale for the LivEnabled Week organised by the Centre for Enabled Living (or CEL). The LivEnabled Week is a good opportunity to engage the people, public and private sectors, as well as care-givers and their loved ones, to talk about and share ideas on care giving. In particular, I would like to commend CEL and its partners for putting together this exhibition, which helps to raise awareness on the different support services available in the community for persons needing care (PNCs) and their care-givers.

Importance of Care-Givers

3.    I believe that many of us here today have been or will be care-givers at some point of our lives. Some of us have young children to look after, while others have to care for the needs of our ageing loved ones. There are also individuals with special needs that require specialised care and attention.

4.    Given that Singapore’s population will age significantly over the next 10 to 20 years, we would expect the demand for care services to increase.
 
5.    Care-givers play a crucial role in ensuring that those who need care can be cared for safely and enjoy better quality of life. They usually prefer to be cared for by their loved ones in the comfort of their homes because there can be no substitution for the emotional support and warmth provided by their family members, and the feeling of being at home.

6.    However, the challenges faced by care-givers and their contributions go unrecognised.  Providing care can be physically and emotionally draining. Certain groups of care-givers may face additional challenges, particularly the single or low-income care-givers, or care-givers who are seniors themselves. Another group of care-givers who will require support are those in the “sandwich” class, or Singaporeans who have to shoulder the responsibility of caring for both their aged parents as well as their children.

Care-giving for Seniors

7.    The care-giver is a key focus of the Ministerial Committee on Ageing (MCA).  We believe that to realise the vision of helping our seniors age in place safely and gracefully, we must do more to empower their families to care for them longer.

8.    We hope to support care-givers in two ways – enhancing community based facilities, and providing them with more information and training.

9.    The government will be expanding day care facilities for seniors over the next 10 years.  We are also studying ways to make respite care, emergency services and counselling support more accessible so that their care-givers can be better supported.

10.    Care-giving involves a high degree of skills and knowledge too. Within the community, care-givers may include not just the spouse of the senior, their children, but even their domestic helpers. These care-givers may assume their care giving roles under a range of different situations. Some might find themselves slowly taking on more responsibilities as a care-giver, especially if their loved one is suffering from a gradual decline in functionality, for instance due to dementia. Others might find themselves thrust into the role of a care-giver overnight, if their loved one suffers a sudden debilitating condition such as a stroke or hip fracture. We want to reach out to the whole spectrum of care-givers and empower them with the relevant knowledge and skills and prepare them mentally to take on the role of care-givers. In doing so, we will need to tailor the information and skills training for care-givers to meet their specific needs. In addition, we will make training more accessible by bringing the training to homes and subsidising the cost of training.  

11.    CEL has already made good progress in this area. Apart from classroom-based training, CEL has started working with Voluntary Welfare Organisations (VWOs) to conduct home-based care-giver training. This is because CEL recognises that it can be difficult for care-givers to leave their loved ones at home to attend centre-based training. These home-based training are customised according to the needs of the care recipient and the care-giver.

12.    CEL also administers the Care-giver Training Grant (CTG) which helps defray the costs of care-giver training for informal care-givers including foreign domestic workers. Since 2009, more than 6,000 care-givers have benefited from training courses that are subsidised by this grant.

13.    CEL has also worked with various partners such as the Khoo Teck Puat Hospital on the Care-giver’s Timeout event for care-givers to come together to share their experiences and learn about the various support services available in the community. It allows for information and knowledge sharing among care-givers so that they are more aware of the services that they can tap on for support and learn from fellow care-givers on management of stress from care-giving.

14.    Events such as this LivEnabled Showcase are another avenue to raise awareness of the resources available to care-givers. The activities, performances, games and booths at this event are innovative ways to showcase the various services and products that are available to care-givers and PNCs. One of the key highlights of today’s showcase is The Maze of Amazement which allows us to see the inspiring stories of people living enabled lives and to share our thoughts on what living enabled means as we navigate through the maze. The other highlight is the Sports Zone by Singapore Disability Sports Council where you can try your hand at various adaptive sports such as wheelchair basket ball and hand cycling and meet our very own Paralympians who will be representing us at the 2012 Paralympics in London.   

Conclusion

15.    I hope that caregivers and their loved ones will find this exhibition informative and enjoy themselves at the same time. For all the dedicated care-givers, we salute your dedication and commitment, and I would like to assure you that the government is committed to work hand in hand with you and the community partners to build a society that enables and supports people to lead a fulfilling life.

16.    It is my pleasure to open the LivEnabled Showcase and I wish all of you a very enjoyable and fruitful event.