Forum: Community care must be central to our mental health strategy
W e appreciate the article, 'Community care: How one man managed his agoraphobia without hospital treatment' (The Sunday Times, May 25). It illustrates the transformative potential of community-based mental health support in enabling individuals to recover meaningfully and restore agency over their lives.
At Allkin Singapore, we see this daily in our work. Community-based support reduces stigma, closes accessibility gaps, and reminds us that individuals are not problems to be fixed, but people with stories to be heard and strengths to be rekindled.
For individuals grappling with anxiety, depression, trauma or social isolation, healing is often rooted in connection and continuity, and not in clinical interventions alone. We have witnessed how relational safety – being seen, heard and supported in everyday settings – can lay the foundation for long-term recovery.
A senior struggling with anxiety may benefit from structured activities like simple breathing techniques and regular check-ins from trained neighbours without having to step into a clinic. A school-refusing youth might first find a listening ear in a youth worker at a drop-in centre before seeking professional counselling. Such human encounters are often the first step towards hope and recovery.
As Singapore advances its Healthier SG vision and efforts in population mental health, we echo the call for a more distributed, people-centred care model: one where every family and community member can be part of the mental wellness ecosystem.
Low Mun Heng
Principal Social Worker and Head of Mental Health Service
Allkin Singapore
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