Age Well Neighbourhoods to boost seniors' access to healthcare, activities

Move to provide them with support to age at home and within their community

- Judith Tan and Samuel Devaraj

With more seniors preferring to age at home and within the community they live in, Singapore will be rolling out a scheme to provide them with the support to do so.

Called Age Well Neighbourhoods, the initiative was announced by Prime Minister Lawrence Wong in his National Day Rally speech on Aug 17.

The first of these neighbourhoods will be launched in Toa Payoh, one of Singapore's oldest towns, as well as in "one or two other places" with a higher concentration of seniors, he added.

"Nearly one-quarter of residents in Toa Payoh are 65 and above - it is already a super-aged town."

PM Wong said that while many of the seniors live with caregivers - their children or domestic helpers - more are living on their own.

This reflects Singapore's changing demographics, where there are more singles and couples without children. Even among those with children, family sizes are smaller, he added.

"So many seniors choose to live independently, in order not to burden their children. We have been studying how to better support seniors in Toa Payoh and other older towns."

He said that while Community Care Apartments (CCAs), a joint initiative by the National Development and Health ministries, are an answer to tackle long-term care and living arrangements, they are not the primary solution to Singapore's seniors ageing in place. For one thing, there is a limit to how many of such flats can be built, he added.

CCAs are HDB flats that combine housing with care arrangements for seniors. These flats come with senior-friendly features such as wheelchair-accessible bathrooms with grab bars and slip-resistant floors.

The senior residents subscribe to a package of services, such as home fixes, health checks or housekeeping.

There is currently only one completed CCA project in Singapore in Bukit Batok.