Care Beyond Walls

Social prescription service operated by a daycare centre

Elderly volunteer at host organisations regularly as part of Care Plan

Set-up of 2 next-generation daycare centres

Transform the services and spaces of a cluster of eldercare centres at Ang Mo Kio.

Seniors attending a dementia daycare centre in Ang Mo Kio will no longer be cooped up within it all day as is usually the case elsewhere. Instead, in a pilot social prescription service model operated out of a Social Service Agency, the seniors – dubbed the Silver Brigade – will be assigned regular and long-term volunteering duties at 30 host organisations by 2024 as a formal part of their Individualised Care Plans.

They will take on carefully-selected non-mission-critical tasks with both practical value to the host organisation and therapeutic value to the seniors, at host organisations such as primary schools, preschools, places of worship, animal shelters, etc.

The Silver Brigade is part of a larger $3.56m transformation of some of AWWA’s centres and services at Ang Mo Kio St 12. It involves the redesign and extension of the operating hours of the existing AWWA Dementia Day Care Centre, the set-up of a new daycare centre, and a weekend respite service for caregivers.

Partners include AWWA, Elias Park Primary School, Kong Meng San Monastery, SOSD Singapore, Sri Darma Muneeswaran Temple, Jamiyah Childcare Centre, Qian Hu Fish Farm, The Care Lab, Pei Chun Public School, Anderson Primary School, Presbyterian High School, Little Skool-house, NParks, Willing Hearts Kitchen, Faith Music Centre, Ang Mo Kio Public Library, IELO and Tri-Sector Associates.

A senior helps out in a preschool’s early literarcy programme, as part of her own care plan. Said Ms Chua Shi Jia, a senior occupational therapist at Awwa: “Therapeutic activities don’t have to be done only within the dementia daycare centre. In fact, they shouldn’t.”