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Home alone, but loneliness doesn't have to be a constant companion for Singapore's seniors
Home alone, but loneliness doesn't have to be a constant companion for Singapore's seniors

CNA

time4 days ago

  • General
  • CNA

Home alone, but loneliness doesn't have to be a constant companion for Singapore's seniors

Lions Befrienders executive director Karen Wee said Singapore has made significant strides in building senior-friendly infrastructure, but noted that there are limits to how much more can be built. She said there needs to be more of a "human element" – not in the form of more case workers, but rather for the community to come forward. "If every three people check in on one senior, and each person spends 10 minutes, that is sufficient. You're looking at about 30 minutes a day for that senior, and that is enough," said Ms Wee. On the ground, social workers from 4S Active Ageing Centre @ Eunos Crescent agreed that strong neighbourly camaraderie should also be encouraged so that seniors can help one another. They added that seniors have diverse needs, so engagement has to be "flexible and person-centred" as some seniors may not be comfortable in a large group, or unable to participate in robust activities. Assoc Prof Chan suggested Singapore could take a leaf out of Japan's Hyogo Prefecture's book on how community-driven efforts can make a tangible difference to seniors' lives. In Hyogo, rural communities such as Sasayama City have implemented a grassroots "Happy Yellow Flag" initiative to check in on seniors living alone. Launched in January 2019, the scheme invites participating households to display a small yellow flag each morning to signal that they are safe, and take it down at night. If a flag isn't seen, neighbours or volunteer welfare officers will follow up. Prompted by a case of kodokushi (a lonely death) in the area, the initiative has strengthened community vigilance and fostered a sense of shared responsibility. Residents say it brings peace of mind, especially for elderly individuals living alone. Dr Ad added that while the expansion of active ageing centres is a positive step, addressing loneliness remains difficult, as building meaningful connections takes time and is highly personal. "Active ageing centres are premised upon being very activity-centric," he said. "The cure to loneliness is not giving people things to do. That is the cure to boredom." He suggested that a way to tackle loneliness is by leveraging "weak ties", such as neighbours, shopkeepers and others in the neighbourhood, as these ties can help a person feel a sense of belonging and connection. We need to normalise ageing as a basic facet of life, rather than medicalise it, said Dr Ad. "The less we treat older people as fragile populations, the more confident seniors would feel about co-existing in the community." WHY SOME SENIORS END UP SOCIALLY ISOLATED Not all seniors who live alone are isolated, but for those who are, the roots often run deeper than their current living arrangements and can have significant consequences. Studies have shown that living alone can cause psychological distress and lead to feelings of loneliness, which then contributes to the risk of mortality and depression – hence the general stereotype of living alone being sad and lonely. But as the seniors and experts pointed out, living alone is not a definite indicator of loneliness. In fact, studies show that older adults living with their families can feel lonely too, said Assoc Prof Ghoh. One factor that contributes to isolation is when frailty sets in, she said. It becomes difficult to perform activities of daily living, and this can limit the ability to live life as fully as before. Assoc Prof Ghoh added that some older adults suffer from chronic illnesses in their younger years and, as they age, the deterioration of these medical conditions can lead to limitations in living well and managing life independently. Another concern for seniors is fall risk, which increases exponentially when the senior becomes frail and has difficulty moving around freely, experts noted. Fall risk increases when the home environment is not safe, for example, slippery floors, no grab bars and wires, carpets and objects on the floor that hinder safe mobility. "Some seniors become homebound as they fear that they may fall if they move too much. This in turn may lead to social isolation and loneliness," said Assoc Prof Ghoh. Assoc Prof Chan said that compared to their American counterparts, Singaporean seniors tend to stay at home after a fall, which can lead to depression, and then to lower muscle mass, with deterioration potentially occurring quite rapidly. As such, she suggested that community health programmes, active ageing centres and community centres conduct more fall screenings and provide more education on this front. Although there has been a proliferation of services for seniors, a gap remains in the area of screening for depression and suicide risk in older adults, said Assoc Prof Ko. Even if the government increases its range of senior services, Asst Prof Ang said more fundamental changes are necessary if Singapore wants to tackle the risks of social isolation in old age. "There is no quick fix, because people do not suddenly become older adults overnight. They are a culmination of decades of life experiences and circumstances," he said. This means that people have to be able to make the best decisions for themselves at every stage of life, so that they are able to reap the benefits and enjoy a good life in their silver years, he added.

Deep Dive - More elderly Singaporeans are living alone – should we be concerned?
Deep Dive - More elderly Singaporeans are living alone – should we be concerned?

CNA

time18-07-2025

  • Health
  • CNA

Deep Dive - More elderly Singaporeans are living alone – should we be concerned?

The number of elderly Singaporeans living alone has doubled in the past decade. With Singapore on the cusp of becoming a 'super-aged' society, the numbers will only climb further. While support systems exist, are they enough when an elderly person needs urgent medical help or even just someone to talk to? Steven Chia speaks with Karen Wee, executive director of Lions Befrienders, and Dr Reuben Ng from the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy.

Ngee Ann Poly students' app uses tech, AI to help seniors avoid falls
Ngee Ann Poly students' app uses tech, AI to help seniors avoid falls

Business Times

time16-07-2025

  • Health
  • Business Times

Ngee Ann Poly students' app uses tech, AI to help seniors avoid falls

[SINGAPORE] A group of students from Ngee Ann Polytechnic is looking to develop a mobile app that allows seniors to independently conduct fall-risk assessments from the comfort of their own homes. Traditionally, seniors go to clinics to take fall-risk assessments, where doctors grade their ability to perform physical activities, such as walking. The app, called FallSafe, will allow them to conduct such assessments using their mobile phones. FallSafe combines Internet of Things, artificial intelligence and cloud-native technology. 'Our idea is to allow the elderly to use their mobile phones, which have gyroscope and accelerometer sensors. These are sensors that they can utilise to capture how they performed,' said 19-year-old Jeffrey Lee, who is part of the team behind the digital solution, which is in its proof-of-concept stage. The app has two steps – a questionnaire and a physical self-assessment. The assessment can be as short as 15 minutes, and seniors are encouraged to do it every six months to better understand their own bodies. 'We envision FallSafe to be a mobile app that they can download. When they hold it or put it in their pocket, they just need to walk. Based on how the phone moves, we are able to capture how well they performed in their physical self-assessment. We are then able to use those metrics to calculate the risk that the elderly have,' Lee said. He added that the app aims to provide seniors 'personalised, tailored feedback on how they can improve or maintain their current fall risk'. A NEWSLETTER FOR YOU Friday, 2 pm Lifestyle Our picks of the latest dining, travel and leisure options to treat yourself. Sign Up Sign Up Making it accessible for seniors Lee said FallSafe is 'among the first consumer-facing applications in Singapore' to explore the use of mobile phones for fall-risk assessments, without the need for specialised equipment or wearables. Previous studies in Singapore that focused on fall detection using gyroscope and accelerometer data relied on dedicated hardware. One of the biggest challenges was making sure the tech was user-friendly for seniors, said Lee. 'There are so many friction points in an app that to us, it could be second nature, but to the elderly, it is not… Whenever we created a feature, we would share it with our elderly testers and (get their input).' His team thus worked with welfare organisation Lions Befrienders to test FallSafe on seniors. The app is also multilingual, as it uses Google Translate and can be accessed in any language offered by that platform. Although there are no concrete plans at the moment to scale the tech as the team members are busy pursuing internships, they hope to eventually continue their partnership with Lions Befrienders to develop the app, and potentially work with other social service agencies and government agencies. In the long term, the team aims to adopt a social enterprise business model for FallSafe. Any profits made will be reinvested back into the tech for greater impact. Addressing a 'silent issue' Accessible digital solutions such as FallSafe are set to become especially relevant as Singapore's ageing population rises. The Republic is set to transition to a 'super-aged' society by 2026, with more than one in five people aged 65 and above. Lee, along with team members Jovan Ong, Putera Daniel and Kelvin Tan, are slated to win the Outstanding Innovation Team Award on Jul 22 at Ngee Ann Poly's Student Excellence Awards 2025. Falls are a 'silent issue' that is still 'persistent' and has 'far-reaching consequences' for seniors, said Lee. '(They) are the leading cause of injury-related hospital admissions among seniors. Beyond physical injuries such as fractures and head trauma, they can also cause devastating effects on mental well-being.' Lions Befrienders said that seniors usually take a fall-risk assessment only after an incident has occurred. With the user-friendly features and accessibility of FallSafe, the team hopes they will be encouraged to take a more pre-emptive approach to the issue.

Smart sensors used in study to detect cognitive decline in seniors who live alone
Smart sensors used in study to detect cognitive decline in seniors who live alone

Straits Times

time06-07-2025

  • Health
  • Straits Times

Smart sensors used in study to detect cognitive decline in seniors who live alone

Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox SINGAPORE – Ms Julie Chia lives alone in a flat in Tampines and keeps herself active despite her advanced age. The 97-year-old feels secure each time she heads out, whether it is to the Lions Befrienders (LB) Active Ageing Centre at her void deck to play Rummy-O with her friends or nearby to buy the newspaper and her dinner. The sprightly woman is among more than 200 seniors living alone who have been recruited since 2020 for a longitudinal study looking into using smart sensor technology to detect mild cognitive impairment (MCI) – a condition that increases one's risk of developing dementia – in order to respond to it early. This will help seniors to age better and remain for longer in the community. 'With this (beacon sensor) on my keychain, I know that whenever I go out, someone knows. I feel more relieved,' said Ms Chia. What the researchers have gathered from the second phase of the study, with sensor data collected from 63 seniors living alone, is that the machine learning-based prediction technology is able to detect MCI at a 90 per cent accuracy rate. This is an improvement from the previous performance of 70 per cent obtained in the first phase of the study in 2020. The data for the study is generated by eight sensors placed in different parts of the participants' homes, such as the living room, under the mattress, inside their medicine box or cabinet, and on the door. A sensor resembling a tag is also attached to their keychain to help track whether the senior participants have their keys with them when they go out. Additionally, the seniors are given a wearable device to measure their daily steps and heart rate. In Ms Chia's case, the sensors were installed at her home in April 2021. Unlike a traditional video surveillance system that captures images and voices, the sensors monitor movement and daily routines discreetly, including sleep patterns, physical activity and memory lapses. They also track how often the senior moves around the flat or goes out and for how long, how well he or she sleeps, or the frequency of forgetting personal items, particularly their medications. A sensor resembling a tag is also attached to their keychain to help track whether the senior participants have their keys with them when they go out. ST PHOTO: TARYN NG The longitudinal study, called Sensors In-home for Elder Wellbeing , is led by Associate Professor Iris Rawtaer, head and senior consultant at the department of psychiatry and director of research at Sengkang General Hospital , and p rofessor of computer science Tan Ah Hwee from Singapore Management University. It is estimated that there will be 152,000 individuals living with dementia in Singapore by 2030, and 187,000 by 2050. While global study statistics vary, up to half of all people with MCI go on to develop dementia within five years, said Prof Rawtaer. In 2024, the Lancet Commission on dementia prevention, intervention and care found that 45 per cent of cases of dementia could potentially be delayed by addressing some of the modifiable risk factors, such as social isolation, untreated vision loss and high low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, commonly known as bad cholesterol. However, many people are not even aware of experiencing MCI, the at-risk state for dementia. They seek help only after significant cognitive decline has occurred, missing the crucial window for intervention and advanced planning, said Prof Rawtaer. This is where the sensor system can help. 'Nine out of 10 times, it essentially outperforms your pen and paper routine screening instruments like your MMSE (Mini-Mental State Examination) and your Moca (Montreal Cognitive Assessment),' Prof Rawtaer told The Straits Times. MMSE and Moca are brief screening tools used to assess cognitive function and detect MCI as well as mild dementia. The participants in the study go through detailed neurocognitive assessments yearly, providing the benchmark against which the machine learning models in the sensor system are tested. 'The question is whether seniors can accept the use of the sensor system. Is this intrusive? Is this inconvenient? Is this going to be something that we can scale and do in the long term in the community?' Prof Rawtaer said. Ms Chia, for instance, did not have her wearable device – a study requirement – on her on the day of the interview. A spokesman for LB, who was with her that day, said the seniors may forget to charge their wearable device. Prof Tan said that for the second phase of the study, the team developed an advanced machine learning-based artificial intelligence (AI) model to handle irrelevant or missing sensor data due to hardware failure, for instance. The AI can also explain why it flagged someone as being at risk, he said. As an example, it has learnt that people with MCI often move around less while at home and are more likely to forget to take their medication. 'At SMU, we have one data engineer and two data analysts looking at the data. Moving forward, we are thinking that we should partner with a commercial party... to be able to do this in a viable manner. It's not just the installation of the equipment but the maintenance and the day-to-day monitoring,' he said. The total installation cost of the sensor system is below $1,000. In the third planned phase of the study – for which the researchers are awaiting funding – they will test the sensors in multi-person households, and look at new digital biomarkers and how to reduce the numbers of sensors used to make the monitoring system more efficient and affordable. Beyond cognitive assessment, the smart sensor system could be expanded to support safety monitoring and health assessment, the researchers said. LB's executive director Karen Wee said the smart sensor system has a lot of potential not just in helping seniors to age well in the community, but also in enabling providers like it to better support the seniors. 'Wearables may not be something that the seniors of today are keen on, but who is to say that in 10 years' time they will not be widespread,' she said.

Over 5,000 pre-schoolers work on SG60 mural made of reused plastic toys
Over 5,000 pre-schoolers work on SG60 mural made of reused plastic toys

Straits Times

time02-07-2025

  • Entertainment
  • Straits Times

Over 5,000 pre-schoolers work on SG60 mural made of reused plastic toys

Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox SINGAPORE - Over 147kg of old plastic toys have been assembled on a giant mural at Promenade MRT station depicting iconic figures in Singapore's 60-year journey, including its founder Sir Stamford Raffles, samsui women, and the once-ubiquitous kacang puteh man. Modern icons like the Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay and Marina Bay Sands, as well as beloved zoo animals Inuka the polar bear and Ah Meng the orang utan, are also featured. The SG60 art project, titled Building Our Nation Over Generations, was unveiled on July 2. Measuring 13.5m wide and 2.1m high, it is said to be the largest mural in Singapore made from reused plastics, created in support of Go Green SG. Ms Goh Han Yan, Senior Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment, placed the final piece on the mural at its unveiling ceremony. Over 10,000 participants were involved in the making of the mural, including more than 5,000 pre-schoolers from Kinderland International Education and their educators and family members. The pre-school group also partnered with SMRT Trains, YTL PowerSeraya and Lions Befrienders for the project. Ms Fadhlin A.G., 35, who designed the artwork, said Kinderland approached her to create the mural to share the message of sustainability. Ms Fadhlin A.G. (in black top), head of art at Crestar Learning Centre, and pre-schoolers looking at Singapore's largest mural made from recycled plastic toys on July 2. ST PHOTO: GAVIN FOO 'I feel very happy and very proud of the kids,' said Ms Fadhlin, head of art at Crestar Learning Centre. She added that the kids 'did most of the work', dismantling the toys to glue them onto the mural board. Ms Doris Tey, 53, centre leader of Kinderland, facilitated the project across the group 's 51 centres in Singapore. She said that after the centres received toy donations, the plastic ones were identified, weighed and sorted by size. If a toy was too big, it would be dismantled. The task of dismantling toys was handled by adult volunteers from YTL Power Seraya and educators from the centres. Seniors from Lions Befrienders helped with painting and sorting the toys. Reagan Wong, one of the 5,000 pre-schoolers who worked on the mural, said choosing the toys was his favourite part of the project. 'I have fun making this picture with my friends,' said the six-year-old boy. (From left) President of SMRT Trains Lam Sheau Kai; General Manager of Kinderland Seet Lee Kiang; Senior Parliamentary Secretary for the Ministry of Sustainability & the Environment Goh Han Yan; CEO of YTL PowerSeraya John Ng; and Executive Director of Lions Befrienders Service Association Singapore Karen Wee in front of Singapore's largest mural made from recycled plastic toy waste. ST PHOTO: GAVIN FOO Ayesha Adawiyah Md Fadli, six, said it was good to use old toys for the mural. Recycling 'helps the earth and the earth will be clean', she said. Ms Tey said the mural is a meaningful 'inter-generational effort to celebrate Singapore's 60th anniversary and promote sustainability'. SMRT, which provided the platform for the artwork, said: 'The mural stands as a powerful symbol of how even the youngest among us can contribute to a greener future.' Mr Seet Lee Kiang, general manager and director of Kinderland Singapore, said: 'This SG60 mural is more than an artwork. It is a symbol of hope, collaboration and a greener future.'

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