Plans in the works to ensure seniors have single point of contact for community care

Integration will make it easier for families to access services: Minister

- Joyce Teo

Plans to ensure seniors have a single point of contact for community care are in the offing, as the authorities work on integrating such services for a fast-ageing population, said Health Minister Ong Ye Kung on May 28.

Beyond expanding individual community services, integration will make it easier for families to access services and move between different ones, he said at the Agency for Integrated Care (AIC) Community Care Work Plan Seminar 2025.

Mr Ong, who was also appointed Coordinating Minister for Social Policies on May 21, laid out the vision for community care.

"It must be a system that every senior can count on, regardless of your health status. When you are well, community care prevents us from falling sick. If we are sick, it supports us to manage the disease and prevent it from progressing," he said.

"If we become frail, it supports our families to take care of us and organises the different services that we need. If our families are unable to take care of us, the system then steps in as a last resort."

The urgency to transform community care is unmistakable. By 2030, Singapore will have one million seniors aged 65 and above, with possibly half of them living with a chronic disease. The number of those who need help with at least one activity of daily living is expected to almost double within a decade, from an estimated 58,000 in 2020 to 100,000 in 2030.

More seniors are also expected to be living alone – from 76,000 in 2023 to 122,000 in 2030.

Mr Ong listed three areas of change.

First, strong coordination is needed in the community care sector to tie together the various services as they expand.