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Ethos Issue 1, October 2006
Successful Ageing - A Review of
Singapore's Policy Approaches
Olivia Goh
Young At Heart
An example of opportunities to help seniors stay active, this
community-based learning programme sends the elderly back
to school.
Started by the Marine Parade Family
Service Centre in May 2005, the YAH! (Young At Heart!) Community
College is a pioneering effort to offer learning opportunities
for the elderly aged 50 and above.
Its first intake saw 100 elderly take
up courses in gerontology, information technology and other
life skills; 94% of them have had less than secondary school
education and for one-fifth, this marked their first experience
at schooling. The majority or 86% of the two cohorts in 2005
and 2006 are women.
The programme includes core subjects,
project work, volunteer and community activities, and electives
such as line dancing, yoga and creative painting. Participants
graduate with a "Certificate on Life Long Learning".
Student Seniors are then be recruited as Active Seniors Ambassadors
in various areas of volunteer work.
– Olivia Goh
The YAH! Community College: www.mpfsc.org.sg/yah/yah-index.htm
Olivia Goh is an Elderly Policy Officer
with the Social Support Division of the Ministry of Community
Development, Youth and Sports.
| NOTES |
| 01. |
Report on the Committee on the Problems of the Aged,
(Ministry of Health, February 1984), pp24-26. |
| 02. |
ibid, p41. |
| 03. |
Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong in a letter to Minister
Mah Bow Tan, Chairman of the 1999 IMC (9 November 1999). |
| 04. |
Taken from the IMC report (1999). |
| 05. |
The Eldercare Masterplan (2001-2005), spearheaded by
the Ministry for Community, Youth and Sports, was a result
of a broad-based review of elder care programmes and services
conducted between June 1999 and July 2000. |
| 06. |
Ministry of Health, "MediFund was established
with an initial capital of S$200 million and capital injections
will be made when budget surpluses are available,"
http://www.moh.gov.sg/
corp/financing/index.do |
| 07. |
Future of Retirement: Insights for Singapore (London,
UK: HSBC, 2006). The report was authored by the Oxford
Institute of Ageing under the directorship of Dr Sarah
Harper. |
| 08. |
In the workplace, pro-family practices such as flexi-work
arrangements, extended maternity leave and childcare leave
have been introduced. The civil service is now on a five-day
work week. |
| 09. |
Since July 2002, the Family Matters! Singapore Taskforce
on Grandparenting and Inter-generational Bonding has received
more than 100 project applications from 65 organisations
and disbursed more than $500,000 in funding. |
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