Singapore‘s “Ageing in Place” Policy and Its Aim

Singapore Social Work: Eldercare
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Singapore Social Work: Eldercare
Singapore’s “Ageing in Place” policy is a nursing care philosophy where mature citizens are empowered to maintain autonomy, individuality, and links with social support, including family and friends, despite living in the same place. The policy borrows from the philosophy of “ageing in place”, which is quite championed in Singapore and entails encouraging seniors to retire in their own family unit or within the societies where they live. Singapore’s “Ageing in Place” policy is founded on the traditional principles of filial piety and places family members at the center of elderly care (TheHomeGround.asia, 2022). The aim of the policy is to keep seniors healthy, provide senior-friendly housing and towns, build senior-friendly communities across Singapore, and keep seniors healthy, active, and safe.
Four essential determinants of Ageing in Place in the context of Singapore are financial and social security, housing and infrastructure, social integration, and healthcare. The first essential determinant is financial and social security. Social security has been a critical financial resource for mature citizens: millions of senior citizens have for over decades of years received social security payments yearly. Seniors who are in poor health and have a lowered life expectancy need the income from Social Security as a safety net. It makes sense to begin enjoying the benefits early since social security is supposed to play a critical retirement income role for senior citizens (Xiang & Ning, 2022). The monthly social security benefits at older ages accounts for about a third of all mature citizens’ income. Moreover, another essential determinant of Ageing in Place in the context of Singapore is housing and infrastructure. The policy provides seniors with affordable housing options including senior friendly housing (studio apartments) and multi-generation family-friendly housing.
Senior friendly housing (studio apartments) have a shorter 30-year lease term and fitted with senior-friendly features while the multi-generation family-friendly housing has enhanced multi-generation priority scheme and three generation flats. The policy also provides senior citizens with options to monetize housing assets such as through the enhanced lease buyback scheme (to monetize a section of the remaining lease) and enhanced silver housing bonus (to allow seniors to downsize to a smaller unit) (Hillier & Barrow, 2015). Other housing and infrastructure programs include enhancement for active seniors (EASE) (which provides seniors with 95% subsidy for home retrofits), silver zones (which provides areas with a high proportion of seniors with senior-friendly road sections), and barrier free access (including barrier free and lift upgrading). The third essential determinant of Ageing in Place in the context of Singapore is social integration. For instance, the City for All Ages projec...