Eldercare
Eldercare is often commoditised, depersonalised and undignified. This age-old challenge needs new ideas, which we strive to inject from the worlds of design, science and - sometimes - common sense.
INGOT covers a third of Singapore's nursing home beds
Gym Tonic set up at 30 locations
Post-Diagnostic Support scaled up by government to more hospitals
In Singapore, we tend to give seniors the leftover, the reused, the just-good-enough. At the Lien Foundation, we believe in a different approach: Giving the elderly the best.
Our elderly live their last years in nursing home wards with little privacy, are given children’s colouring books to while away their time, and experience care that often neglects their personhood.
They don’t complain. But silence should not be our benchmark.
We’ve tried to bring light into their golden years in different ways. Gym Tonic, which features elderly-friendly equipment, has grown into a chain of 30 gyms. Our Post-Diagnostic Support service, which hand-holds newly-diagnosed Persons With Dementia and their caregivers, was scaled up by the government. Our person-centred IT system, IngoT, now serves 8,000 elderly, or one in three receiving care through Ministry of Health-funded programmes in nursing homes, day centres and at home.
Projects like these aim to maximise the number of healthy years lived and tackle the rising prevalence of frailty and chronic diseases. We want seniors to take charge of their lives and maintain – even improve – their functional abilities.
We believe that as Singapore ages, the definition of “best” must evolve, so we can meet needs and aspirations so important to respect, but so easy to ignore.
Hacking Ageing
A series of initiatives with the Centre for Healthy Longevity to transform Singapore’s healthcare from reactive ‘sick care’ towards a population health prevention approach, to extend life spent in good health.
Long Term Care Manpower Study
A research study that shows how long term care workers in Singapore are dogged by low pay and limited prospects, via comparison to care workers in four other fast-ageing Asia-Pacific economies – Japan, Hong Kong, Australia and South Korea.
All our eldercare work
SoundKeepers
Development of a new AI tool and community intervention programme to detect and manage early signs of depression in seniors
Pillar Of Care: Foreign Workers
Enabling foreign healthcare staff, a cornerstone of Singapore’s care sector, to pursue higher education.
Inheritage
A lion dance training programme specially-designed for seniors, including those with mobility challenges, by lion dance masters.
Hack Kopitiam
Hack Kopitiam explores how to leverage the ubiquity of coffeeshop as natural community nodes to engage male seniors — a group often less engaged with formal ageing programmes.
Future-Directed Social Service Agency
A new approach to innovation in social service by investing in new capabilities across Care Corner to develop the ability to be agile and responsive to the changing needs of service users.
Reunion
The first purpose-built social space for seniors in a local museum, Reunion provides a non-medical intervention that supports the health and well-being of seniors, including those with mild cognitive impairment and dementia.
Seniors Go!
In Seniors Go! we train seniors recruited from various SSAs we work with, in a variety of activities, hobbies, skills and more.
Hacking Ageing
A series of initiatives with the Centre for Healthy Longevity to transform Singapore’s healthcare from reactive ‘sick care’ towards a population health prevention approach, to extend life spent in good health.
Navigating a New Reality
A quick, contemporaneous account of the first six months of the COVID-19 crisis as seen through the eyes of some of Singapore’s long-term care (LTC) operators.
Dementia Innovation Readiness Index 2020
As societies age and dementia becomes more common, this Index issues a clear call to city-level leaders to help cities learn from each other on how to best manage this great, global challenge to health and social care.
Post Diagnostic Support
A support programme for newly-diagnosed Persons With Dementia and their caregivers.
Hack Care
A tongue-in-cheek guide, styled like an IKEA catalogue, offering tips and tricks to make the home a friendlier place for Persons With Dementia.
Personally Speaking
A visual arts exhibition that took an unvarnished look at the grit, grace, challenges and rewards of caring for people with special needs, mental illness and frail or ill elderly.
Care Where You Are
A 232-page research report which throws light on the state of formal centre-based and home-based care for seniors in Singapore, acknowledges strengths, showcases innovations, identifies unmet needs and suggests recommendations.
Long Term Care Manpower Study
A research study that shows how long term care workers in Singapore are dogged by low pay and limited prospects, via comparison to care workers in four other fast-ageing Asia-Pacific economies – Japan, Hong Kong, Australia and South Korea.
Second Beginnings
A book on how unused and underused spaces in land-scarce Singapore can be repurposed to create thriving communities for seniors.
Ingot PCC
Software-as-a-service to help community care providers deliver Person-Centred Care to their clients and families.
Genki Kaki
This 10-part series of short films and articles highlights the rich diversity of services for seniors in Japan – which has the world’s oldest population – and what fast ageing Singapore can learn from them.
Anita’s Nursing Home Stay
A documentary that followed TV host and caregiver Anita Kapoor who volunteered to spend two weeks in a Singapore nursing home.
Safe but Soulless
A 130-page study released in Oct 2016 that examines best practices, concerns and policy choices for nursing home care in Singapore at a time when more homes are being built than ever before.
The Economics of Singapore Nursing Home Care
A cost report on an alternative model of nursing homes comprising only single or double-bedded rooms.
Forget Us Not
Singapore’s first campaign to build a dementia-friendly community where hawkers, bus drivers, cashiers and others were trained to support Persons With Dementia.
Gym Tonic
A chain of 30 senior-friendly gyms that tackles physical frailty via a structured strength training programme.
