As part of our efforts to meet the needs of seniors with dementia, all six of our Active Ageing Centres (AACs) are now registered Dementia Go-To Points (GTPs) in partnership with the national Dementia-Friendly Singapore (DFSG) initiative by the Agency for Integrated Care (AIC).
The rollout was initially launched in 2022 among our then-five AACs, but as of this year, our newly established AAC at Potong Pasir has been onboarded as a Dementia Go-To Point (GTP). With all six AACs recognized as GTPs, in addition to our Maintainance Day Care (MDCs), our services to the community have enhanced. The collective efforts of our centres located at the heart of the community cater to caregivers and provide care and support to seniors living with dementia.
Although dementia does not only affect seniors, the likelihood of developing also dementia increases with age, as approximately 5% of persons living with dementia develop symptoms before age 65. In 2012, about 28,000 people in Singapore aged 60 and older had dementia, affecting 1 in 10 people aged 60 and older. The number of Singaporeans with dementia is expected to soar to 130,000 by 2030.
As our population is rapidly ageing, dementia is an issue we cannot ignore. Hence, we have reached out in partnership with AIC in this initiative to address the prevalence of dementia in our community, especially among seniors, which supports us in empowering seniors to age-in-place.
GTPs are touch points within the community which serve as resource centres that provide information and useful resources on dementia, as well as “safe return” points where members of the public can bring seniors or persons with dementia who may appear lost and are unable to identify themselves or their way home.
We have also designated a hosting area in our AACs for seniors who may have become lost, allowing them to wait until their caregivers arrive to take them home. These areas are designed according to dementia-friendly principles to ensure a safe and comfortable space for persons living with dementia.
Staff at our AACs have also received training in basic dementia awareness and equipped to assist seniors with dementia. Comforting the senior, verifying identification, and reaching out to the senior’s next-of-kin or family member to ensure they are safely reunited with their caregivers and loved ones are part of the care we provide as a GTP.
Our centres are also listed as GTPs on the CARA mobile app and the HealthHub directory, which provide users with the closest GTP locations nationwide. These platforms help to rally community support in locating wandering seniors with dementia to their families, fostering interdependence between our seniors and the community through our AACs.
Seniors and persons with dementia can identify our AACs as a GTP with the decal sticker or poster displayed at the front entrance of our centres, based on the design depicted below.
Our commitment to crafting a senior- and dementia-friendly environment is a view into our service posture that ties into our H.I.P. (Healthy, Interdependent and Purposeful) philosophy of care.
We encourage you to share the word about the role of our AACs in this new initiative, which will enable PCS to further empower the seniors in the community.