Toward a Healthy Longevity Society: Successful Ageing Plan in Singapore

Sponsored by the SFU Department of Gerontology and the SFU David Lam Centre.

About this event

Toward a Healthy Longevity Society: Successful Ageing Plan in Singapore

Singapore is a country taking a whole-of-nation approach to embracing population ageing and being aware of the longevity economy opportunities for the nation. The government has set up the Ministerial Committee on Ageing (MCA) to coordinate government agencies to respond holistically to the ageing society. The MCA launched the Action Plan for Successful Ageing in 2015 as a national blueprint to enable Singaporeans to age gracefully and confidently. It promotes “City for all ages”, Kampong for all ages” and Opportunities for all ages” from national, community, and individual perspectives. This action plan demonstrated the importance of progressive governance and community collaboration to promote successful ageing in Singapore. From 2015 till now, the government has been proactively in supporting ageing in place, integrating health and social care, and preparing for healthy longevity. In 2022, the Ministry of Health even announced the “Healthier SG Plan” for its citizens to promote health and well-being through a series of community health initiatives, e.g. mobilizing family doctors to deliver preventive care for residents, develop health and care plan, and activate community partners to support healthier lifestyles, in order to prepare for the population ageing. Towards a healthy longevity, we need to mobilize the whole society to support the national development plan. Singapore could be one of the good examples in Asia to demonstrate how a successful ageing plan being implemented with the support from different stakeholders.

Speaker

Carol Ma Hok Ka

Carol Ma is known among academia and the community sector as an active and passionate practitioner of Service-Learning (S-L) and ageing in Asia. Currently, Carol is the senior fellow of the Centre for Experiential learning, associate professor, and Head of Gerontology Programmes (Master & PhD) at Singapore University of Social Sciences. She is leading the curriculum development, community engagement, and research in gerontology and promoting transdisciplinary education to address ageing issues. She is the advisor of the eldercare sector under the service committee of National Council of Social Services and the Board member of the WINGS which is an organization to empower women to age well. She has led various ageing and service-learning projects, namely, the elder learning development project, the age-friendly cities project (accredited by WHO), and the intergenerational project on health & wellbeing, etc. In view of the pandemic, Carol has taken the lead to work on a project on Reminiscences in Dementia Care during the COVID-19 pandemic with National Archives of Singapore and Dementia Singapore.