Speech by Dr Amy Khor, Senior Minister of State for Health, at Health Ambassador Day 2015, 28 November 2015

Mr Zee Yoong Kang, Chief Executive Officer, Health Promotion Board

Our Health Ambassadors

Distinguished Guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

1.    First of all, a very good afternoon to one and all. Thank you all for being here at this year’s Health Ambassador Day. We hold this annual Health Ambassador Day to recognise all your contributions and efforts to promote healthy living amongst Singaporeans. It is indeed a pleasure for us to honour every one of you here who have worked tirelessly to improve the health of your fellow Singaporeans.

2.    I’ve been given this distinguished honour to be called the Chief Health Ambassador. As Chief Health Ambassador, I too am aware of my responsibility as a role model for my family, colleagues, friends and fellow citizens and of course, all our Health Ambassadors here. Together as Health Ambassadors, we have to walk the talk, be the first ones to put into practice good healthy living habits, and of course, advocate the importance of staying healthy. I think some of my grassroots Health Ambassadors are here if I am not mistaken. I think if you talk to them, they can attest that I have become perhaps a bit of a ‘nagger’ - telling them not to eat so much oily food, not to eat too much, go and exercise etc etc, and have a balanced lifestyle. And of course as I have said earlier, what does healthy living mean? Eating healthy, having a balanced diet, exercise regularly, go for health screening, stay smoke-free. And after health screening, what must we do? If you do have abnormal results, we do hope you don’t have abnormal results but if you do have, you should go for  follow-ups.

3.    Well, we all need to do our regular exercises and find our own comfortable, convenient time to do that. Some people do it in the morning like me, some of you do it in the evening. In fact, these days, I see some people running in the night. So suit your schedule. I am also told just now, that some of you have started your own dance groups and exercise groups such as Zumba.

4.    Since the formation of the Health Ambassador Network in 2011, all of you here have continued to play a major role in shaping the community’s attitudes and behaviour towards healthy living. You have led by example and taken on many roles. You are a befriender, motivator, educator and mentor. Many of you have multiple roles. Collectively this year, I’m told that you have spent more than 6,700 hours contributing to HPB’s some 800 activities and events, so give yourselves a big round of applause. You have worked very hard. I am also told that last year you also did the same and worked very hard. Your commitment and efforts have made a difference and this is evident in the results that we have seen in our health promotion programmes. So let me highlight a few, on how you have contributed to this effort.

5.    Now, as leaders and influencers within your community, many of you have taken the initiative to encourage your own family, friends and neighbours to stay active by using the free exercise classes within some of the Health Promoting Malls and as well as within some of the parks, like the monthly exercises. You have also been hard at work in supporting and motivating participants in other programmes. For instance, you have motivated people to join the Lose To Win as well as the Million KG Challenge (MKC) programme. I am pleased to note that when some of you volunteer to go to the selected retail stores to recruit and encourage people to join the Lose To Win or the MKC, I am told that there every time we send you there, there was a spike in the number of people who join these programmes. So thank you very much. I think this is your very persuasive effort to achieve this.

6.    Now, over the years, I Quit Ambassadors have also continued to play a pivotal role in encouraging smokers to quit smoking. And whether it is through the open sharing of your own personal experiences in quitting, or that of your friends or family who were smokers, your strong support and advice have inspired many smokers to take action in their own quit journey. So this year, I Quit Ambassadors have reached out to more than 2900 Singaporeans across the 50 I Quit roadshows. It is indeed impressive to see how effective you have been in drawing people to take action.

7.    Now, you have also been our eyes and ears on the ground. How? By doing mystery checks. Some of you do mystery checks on the healthier dining options on our healthier dining programme, to give feedback, as well as to give feedback on some of the strengths and weaknesses of our programmes, to help us refine and improve the programmes.

8.    Now, new initiatives run by the Health Ambassadors, include the “Moved more, Ate right, Slept well, Shared tips” (M.A.S.S) Workshops. These workshops are for our seniors. This was started in May 2015, and so far, over 300 seniors have attended the workshops. There are also plans to make the workshops more widely available. Now, it is currently conducted at VWO-run service centres such as the Senior Activity Centres. There are plans to extend this, for example, to the Residents’ Committee, to make it more widely available. There are also plans to train more Health Ambassadors for this role. So those of you who are interested, can sign up.

9.    For screening programmes within the community, the follow-up rates of residents with abnormal results, on average, the rates are at about 25%. But I am told that since 2014, we started having our Tele-Care Ambassadors (Health Ambassadors who become telephone counsellors) to call up people with abnormal results, we have reached out to more than 2,500 residents. And your efforts have paid off. I am told that you have been able to increase the post-screening follow-up rates from an average of 25% to more than 70%. Wow! Very good! The outcome is really encouraging, and shows that because of your personal touch, because you bother to call them, and explain to them, they have a better understanding of the importance of post-screening follow-up on abnormal screening results. Really, the power of personal touch to convince and convict them to go for follow-up, is very important because it is no point having health screening but just keeping abnormal results. It doesn’t help you. If you have abnormal results, you must go for follow-up so that you know if there is a need to get treatment. If you get treated earlier, then you can have better control of the conditions and of course, better quality of life. Now, more recently, you have also moved into the workplaces and reached out to over 7,000 mature workers (taxi drivers, bus captains as well as the school cleaners), to encourage them to go for health screening and adopt healthy lifestyle habits.

10.    Now, in addition to HPB’s events, Health Ambassadors are very valued by our many partners in healthcare institutions. They have recognised that you are like our ground infantry troops. For those of you who have gone for National Service, you are like our ground infantry troops. HPB will do the carpet bombing - all the media publicity and so on. But to be really effective and reach the last man on the ground, we have to send in the troops. The ground troops are very important, to finish off the business. And therefore, you are like our ground infantry troops. You go in, have a better reach to the community, make HPB’s programmes and initiatives even more effective by this one-to-one engagement. So our partners also know your value. You have also contributed to the work of our hospitals and polyclinic partners. You helped to boost the uptake of lifestyle intervention programmes amongst patients of the National Healthcare Group Polyclinics, played the tele-care role to the National University Hospital, and volunteered for various community events organised by Khoo Teck Puat Hospital. Some of these partners are here today, and I am sure they will join me in thanking you for your support in this shared endeavour to improve the health of Singaporeans.

11.    In December last year, 100 Health Ambassadors were also involved in the distribution of the 2015 Chinese and Malay Women’s Health Calendars in the community. The Health Calendars actually bring together bite-sized information, easy to read health tips and messages. They also featured recipes - healthier, easy-to-cook, affordable but tasty recipes. Tasty is very important. Most of all, this is very useful to people, including me, who like to try new recipes. The recipes are detachable from the calendar, so you can keep them. Now, these calendars are actually customised and tailored for each ethnic group, whether Chinese or Malay. This year, we are also going to the launch the Tamil version of the Health Calendar and English version. It is the first time that we have included the Tamil and English versions of the Women’s Health Calendar taking into account feedback received. So we are going to launch four different calendars for different ethnic groups. The calendars are customised and tailored for each ethnic group and contain culturally-relevant health information that has been tailored for each community. For the Malay Health Calendar, we have recipes such as mixed fruit rojak, and sago gula melaka – the healthier version, less sugar. And also for the Tamil Calendar, during Deepavali celebration, you are reminded to request for drinks that are less in sugar. The Chinese Health Calendar also has recipes for carrot cake and steamed chicken tofu balls.

12.    I am happy to share with you that for 2016, we have produced 151, 000 calendars in four languages to reach out to more families and ethnic groups, particularly the low income. We have 80,000 Chinese Health Calendars, 50,000 Malay Health Calendars, 20,000 English Health Calendars and 1,000 Tamil Health Calendars. Later, in a short while, I will unveil these new calendars. This year, I hope that more Health Ambassadors will come forward to distribute these calendars to the community, particular to those people who need it, because the calendars have visual cues of simple, healthy messages and tips. And I am told that because of these tips that they see every day, some of the recipients  have started exercising more, eating more healthily, using some of the healthy recipes in the calendar, and going for health screening. And this is what we want to do! Every day, we want to remind them to adopt  healthy living.

13.    The Roman poet Virgil once said that “The greatest wealth is health.” Of course, centuries have passed, and this adage remains true until now. There is also a similar saying in Chinese. Adopting a healthy lifestyle can lower the risks of chronic disease, and give us a better quality of life. It will also go some way to addressing our concerns about healthcare costs. Many of us worry about healthcare costs. But if we lead a healthy lifestyle and keep ourselves healthy, there will be less need to seek medical treatment. Therefore, there is no need to spend on healthcare as much as possible. In fact, you can enjoy a better quality of life. Why do you want to go the hospital or polyclinic if you don’t need to and if you are healthy?

14.    My fellow Health Ambassadors, indeed, I am extremely proud of what you have achieved. In a very short period of time, we are just going to our fifth year. Let’s continue to work together to make healthy living a part of everyday living for Singaporeans. Healthy living should be the default option and shouldn’t be a choice. You, our Health Ambassadors play a crucial role in bringing the healthy lifestyle message to the ground and using your personal touch and zeal to encourage your friends, your family members, your colleagues and residents around you to adopt healthier lifestyles. As the Health Ambassador Network steps into its fifth year, let us continue to remain healthy in mind and body, and be role models to inspire even more people to join this social movement for healthy living! So spread the word around, so spread the passion around, so that more people will share your passion to adopt healthy living.

15.    I wish all of you a most enjoyable afternoon in the company of like-minded and passionate friends. Enjoy the healthy meal that will be served.

Thank you very much!