Eldercare venues keep senior folks active and some even offer rehabilitation help
By Eve Yap, The Straits Times, 30 Sep 2012
As she sits blindfolded, 79- year-old Madam Tay Ann Soon is handed a clove of garlic, an onion and a piece of coriander.
She feels and smells each item, correctly calling out its name.
When it comes to a chilli, therapy aide Aye Aye Kway, 34, asks her: "Is it a big or small chilli?"
"Big," says Madam Tay, a grandmother of nine.
"Very good," chirps Ms Kway, a Myanmar national.
They are at the Sasco Day Activity Centre for the Elderly in Telok Blangah Rise. Madam Tay has been going to the centre on weekdays from 10am to 4pm since last October.
She is no longer listless like she was following several falls three years ago, says her daughter Low Hian Lay, the fifth of six children.
Madam Tay lives with Ms Low, a bank officer in her 40s, two other daughters and her 88-year-old husband, who does not attend the centre, in an Alexandra Road condominium.
"It gives us peace of mind that she's in good hands at the centre. We don't have to worry about her when we are at work," says Ms Low.
The Government announced last Friday that more than 100 facilities to provide care for the elderly will be built over the next three years, at a cost of $500 million.
One of the misconceptions some people have of eldercare venues is that they are places where nothing much happens beyond feeding the clients and helping them to the toilet.
Ms Amurutham Thukaram, 45, Sasco's Telok Blangah Rise centre supervisor, says: "At the centres, they are cared for - mentally, physically and socially - to slow down their deterioration in any of these areas."
Seniors who use elder daycare - which are for the frail - or social activity centres - meant for those who are mobile - do themselves a favour.
For Madam Tipah Ali, who is in her 70s, it gave her confidence in trying new things, says her daughter-in-law Junaidah Yumsi.
Madam Tipah, who has used the Tembusu Seniors Activity Centre for the last four years, now goes for brisk walks and does yoga and art.
Run by Sathya Sai Social Service, the centre is a five-minute walk away from her one-room rental flat in Eunos Crescent, where she lives with her grown-up daughter.
"Now, she is more active. She even joins the taiji group at the basketball court near her home every morning," says Madam Junaidah, 31, a housewife.
For rental-flat residents such as Madam Tipah, all daycare activities are free.
At other centres SundayLife! spoke to, the rates range from about $70 a month with government subsidies to about $500 monthly at Sasco and about $800 a month at St Luke's ElderCare, without grants.
Transportation to and from a centre costs an additional $80 to $230 a month and rehabilitation for recovering stroke or fall patients is charged separately.
Activities are "needs-driven", says St Luke's senior manger Henry Teo, 58, of the group's 11 eldercare centres.
Typically, a 9am-to-6pm day involves torso and limb stretches, which are done with the elderly being seated, as well as creative work such as making cards or lanterns or mental stimulation exercises such as playing bowling on iPads and mahjong.
There are breaks for lunch and snacks. Siesta is usually between 1 and 2pm. Clients are taken home by buses from, say, 4pm or stay and chat till closing time at 6pm.
Dr Sitoh Yih Yiow, consultant geriatrician at Age-Link Specialist Clinic for Older Persons, says social interaction has been shown to help "retard progression of cognitive decline".
So determined is Madam Margaret Hoh not to "face the four walls" at home, she pushes her Parkinson's-stricken husband Thomas Low in his wheelchair from their home in Bedok North to NTUC Eldercare's Silver Circle Daycare Fengshan, located five minutes away.
The couple in their 70s live with Madam Hoh's sister, who is 14 years her junior. They have a married daughter who lives abroad and a grown-up son, who is "very busy".
Madam Hoh says: "When I come here, it's easier for others to take care of him."
For Mr Jamil Salleh, St Luke's ElderCare in Yishun has been a lifeline since his stroke in 2010.
The former SBS bus mechanic's movement and speech are impaired but being at the integrated centre serves both his daycare and rehabilitation needs.
The 60-year-old's wife is a cleaner, who works from 8am to 7pm. Home is a three-room flat in Yishun.
Asked how he feels about the centre, he writes: "I like this centre because there are a lot of activities. I feel happy because nobody disturbs what I do."
Senior citizens may initially resist a family member's attempts to enrol them in an eldercare place.
Persist if they do, says broadcast equipment sales director S.K. Mak. The 50-year-old, who is married with two grown daughters, takes turns with his 53-year-old sister, who runs a jewellery workshop, to care for their mother.
Madam Suen To lives in each of their homes for a few weeks each time.
A fall last October led the hospital where she was treated to recommend Sasco's Telok Blangah facility.
Initially, Mr Mak recalls, "she thought we were abandoning her". Now she will ask him: "Did my 'boss' call today? Is there work?"
He says: "Although I tell her it's not work, she persists, saying, 'There's no pay but they provide meals, exercise and drawing.'
"I never expected my 91-year-old mother to colour so well. Our hearts melt to see her being helped like this."
No comments:
Post a Comment