More NUP Polyclinics To Offer Mental Health, Geriatric Services

Three more NUP polyclinics will offer psychiatric services for mild to moderate forms of common mental health issues such as depression, anxiety and insomnia by 2024 to anchor such care in the community, and will also help relieve the load at hospitals.

- Joyce Teo Senior

By this October, Bukit Panjang Polyclinic which opened last year - will have a Health and Mind Clinic, said Dr Benjamin Cheah, the lead of the Health and Mind Programme at National University Polyclinics (NUP), at a media briefing on Tuesday.

The plan is to expand these services to the other two polyclinics at the rate of one a year, he said. Choa Chu Kang Polyclinic will be up next, followed by Clementi Polyclinic. The other four polyclinics with a Health and Mind Clinic are Jurong, Pioneer, Bukit Batok and Queenstown.

At the same time, the National University Health System (NUHS), which runs the seven NUP polyclinics, is also expanding its geriatric services programme, where it trains polyclinic doctors as well as its community partners such as Lions Befrienders to identify and manage frailty in seniors.