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Issue 1
The Aging Population Predicament
An aging population is one of Singapore’s more major concerns. Its significance lies in its rapidity and implications.
By 2030, Singapore will grey with an estimate of one in four Singaporeans aged 65 and above.
The elderly will also amount to nearly half of Singapore’s population in a mere 32 years from today
The working-age population will bear a large impact.
Rapidly aging population
Shortage in the labour force
Pressure on the working-age population to support and provide for the elderly
Fertility rates continue to decline
Deter women from motherhood plans due to a lack of time or priority
The effects of an ageing population will also affect several other sectors, especially healthcare.
The aging population predicament places emphasis on the healthcare sector to be able to provide affordable, timely and quality care, which means that the medical expenses for both individuals and the healthcare sector overall will see an increase.
If an increase in the aging population, coupled with a slowdown in fertility rates, a shortage in the labour force, then the future of the healthcare sector may see a lack of sufficient manpower required to make up its service and personal carers.
Our efforts should be directed towards developing means of support for the elderly that would not require much manual labour.
TAKE ADVANTAGE OF TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCEMENTS
We plan to employ assistive technology system with a built-in, step-by-step, voice guided interface in various healthcare services and systems for the elderly. The system will come in 4 of the major local languages - English, Chinese, Malay and Indian so that the elderly will be able to use it in the language they are most comfortable with using independently. This upgraded assistive technology system is not only user-friendly, but also reduces the need for physical manpower and, thus, would not place unnecessary pressure on the already strained workforce.
Singapore has taken a large step closer towards building a cashless society with the local transport system. This year, cash top-ups have been gradually phased out at the passenger service centres of Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) train stations nationwide. Furthermore, in another two years, ticketing machines will no longer accept cash for ez-link card top-ups. Many seniors have expressed concerns towards the sudden change, citing a lack of confidence with technology as their main source of fear. Some, however, were supportive of how the change would “force [them] to learn”. In this respect, our proposed assistive technology system will be highly beneficial for the elderly. As a whole, the voice-guided interface will be able to take the user through the top-up process on a seamless step-by-step basis.
integrating various senior care facilities into one centralized system
Our team is also looking at integrating the various senior care facilities into one centralized system. To do this, we turn our attention to two different areas of concern - payment and program.
Payment
Singapore already has rolled out several healthcare schemes that target the welfare of our senior citizens. For instance, elderly citizens over 60 years old - fondly named ‘Pioneers’ - are entitled to a Pioneer Generation card that subsidises their healthcare costs for life. However, for as far as payment methods go, there are many different cards catered towards each type of cashless payment - NETS, credit and/or debit card, etc. The elderly may experience difficulty in keeping track of a myriad of cards.
We'll introduce a single integrated stored value card with ez-link cards as our basis. Not only are they used by all Singaporeans alike, they also have an integrated NETS function. We would use these cards to pair up with the elderly’s bank accounts to facilitate an easier way of managing their bank transactions, making them multi-purposeful. Also, if their children transfer funds over, they need not have to travel too far out to access their card balance and transactions. Instead, they can begin using the funds immediately. As such, the elderly can do away with the hassle of having multiple cards for different services.
Program
Expanding the Community Networks for Senior initiative into include a centralised system will benefit both the carers, healthcare operators and the people. In this system, data on the elderly and healthcare services is collected from various public and private healthcare providers, polyclinics and hospitals in Singapore. The system will contain a database for the health, dietary, and other livelihood facts about each individual elderly. This would help to facilitate the flow of information in the healthcare sector as a whole. Moreover, in times of emergency, valuable time can be saved as information can be easily accessed by the persons-in-charged. In order to establish this system, we will work hand-in-hand with Pioneer Generation Office (PGO), government agencies, voluntary welfare organizations (VWO) and community groups. We envision that this integration will prevent overlapping of services which may incur extra cost for the elderly and also the government.
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