Monday, April 29, 2019

IGNITE Takes Off With Hands-on Programmes for Managers

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IGNITE is a middle-level management three-part module programme customised for managers in the Community Care sector. Designed to provide an overview of the evolving Community Care sector, the Programme aims to raise awareness of services and schemes available to seniors and provide a platform for networking between peers.

The first module recently concluded on 18 April with 49 participants from 25 organisations. Participants were given an insight into how Singapore is tackling the challenges of an ageing population – with a focus on ageing at home, centre-based services that help seniors integrate into the community and community network services.

The first module’s hands-on segment featured two ongoing initiatives: Goodlife!@Yishun’s innovative approach to elderly care and the Meals-On-Wheels service at both TOUCH Home Care and Thye Hua Kwan (THK) Moral Home Help (West).

Learning visit to Goodlife!@Yishun

Situated just across Khatib MRT station, Goodlife!@Yishun was opened on 25 November 2018. It is managed by volunteer welfare organisation, Montfort Care, and supported by the community.

The centre takes an innovative approach to elderly care, which includes Singapore’s first aromatherapy services for seniors and their caregivers. The centre’s trained volunteers provide hand and leg massages in a setting bathed in warm glow and surrounded by comforting scents.

Participants observing a home bathing demonstration as part of their Learning Visit to Goodlife!@Yishun.

For this visit, the IGNITE participants spent half a day touring the facilities, exploring its Sensory Bay, watching a home bathing demonstration, as well as having a conversation with Montfort Care’s CEO, Mr Samuel Ng.

Participants at Goodlife!@Yishun’s Sensory Bay where caregivers and seniors are given hand massages to relieve them of stress. 
Group photo of participants at the “Leadership Conversation” segment with Mr Samuel Ng, CEO, Montfort Care (in pink jacket on right).

Making deliveries for Meals-On-Wheels

To learn more about the Meals-On-Wheels (MOW) service, participants were split into two groups to visit two service providers, namely, TOUCH Home Care (Toa Payoh) and Thye Hua Kwan (THK) Home Help (West).

The Meals-On-Wheels service makes food deliveries to homebound clients who are unable to buy and prepare their own meals and do not have a caregiver to help them. Deliveries are made daily, and catered to different dietary requirements including halal, vegetarian and special diets such as soft food.

Mr Tan Kee Guan, Finance Director at SATA CommHealth, commended the MOW service, “The MOW service was an eye-opener for me. It made me realize that there is a large group of vulnerable elderly that requires the community’s care and support.”

The three-day programme concluded with participants making meal deliveries to the seniors to experience how the MOW service works and how such services impact and help seniors live well at home and in the community.

Participants getting ready to deliver the meals as part of the Meals-on-Wheels service.

The IGNITE programme’s second and third modules will take place in July and October respectively. Stay tuned to mosAIC to see what our participants will be learning about next!

Click hereto find out more about AIC’s IGNITE programme.

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