Speech by Dr Lam Pin Min, Senior Minister of State, Ministry of Health, at Brahm Centre's Singapore Mindfulness Conference 2018, 19 May 2018

Professor Choo Chiau Beng, Patron of Brahm Centre

Ms Chen Yew Nah, Chairperson of Brahm Centre

Adjunct Professor Chua Hong Choon, Chief Executive Officer, Institute of Mental Health

Dr Sara Lazar, Assistant Professor in Psychology, Harvard Medical School

Distinguished Speakers and Guests

Ladies and Gentlemen

              A very good morning to all of you.       

2.           I am very delighted to join you today to launch the first Singapore Mindfulness Conference, organised by Brahm Centre and supported by the Institute of Mental Health (IMH). 

Preventive care efforts to support mental wellness   

3.           Maintaining mental wellbeing is important at every stage of our lives, from childhood and adolescence through adulthood. Good mental health strengthens our ability to establish healthy relationships, problem-solve and make good choices during difficult times, it therefore enables us to lead a productive and fulfilling life.

4.           To promote mental wellbeing, the Health Promotion Board (HPB) adopts initiatives that targets different segments of the population – including students, working adults, and seniors. These initiatives aim to optimise mental well-being as a primary preventive strategy to reduce the risk of poor mental health.

5.           HPB runs programmes to help our students cope with and manage their emotions and challenges, by improving their social skills to navigate their social environment, skills to identify and express their feelings and manage them, and coping skills to deal with everyday challenges, as well as transition points in their education. At the Institutes of Higher Learning (IHL), students are also trained as peer supporters, where they are able to support their peers and also make it easier for their friends to seek the support they need. Besides equipping the students, HPB trains and equips pre-school teachers with the knowledge and skills to build social-emotional competencies in young children.

6.           To facilitate positive mental wellness amongst working adults, HPB works with employers to offer workshops that incorporate stress-relieving activities and stress management advice for employees. These workshops also equip their HR personnel and those in managerial roles with knowledge and skills on how to support others at work, to build a conducive work environment. Stress management tips and relaxation techniques are also included in mass workout sessions. As part of the National Seniors’ Health Programme, HPB organises a series of workshops that promote active ageing and mental wellbeing amongst our seniors, and provide avenues for them to seek help by sharing information on key community help resources.

Strengthening mental health support in the community

7.           Building personal skills to cope with the daily stresses is important, but the community, families, and caregivers play critical roles in promoting mental wellbeing, identifying early signs of mental ill-health, and in rendering support. To facilitate early identification and intervention, various community outreach programmes have been developed under the National Mental Health Blueprint, and later on, under the Community Mental Health (CMH) Masterplan.

8.           For example, the Community Health Assessment Team (CHAT), a professional team from the Institute of Mental Health located at an accessible location at *SCAPE, reaches out to youths between 16 and 30 years old to raise mental health awareness, and provide information on help-seeking.  CHAT also maintains an online portal, where youths can access resources on mental health, or make appointments for mental health assessments. In June 2017, CHAT started a WebCHAT pilot, which can serve as a first point-of-contact for youths who require a listening ear, but who may hesitate to seek face-to-face help initially. Through webchatting, CHAT’s team of mental healthcare professionals will seek to understand the youths’ issues or distress, share appropriate support services available, and where necessary, arrange for the youths to attend a more in-depth assessment.

9.           In 2012, the Agency for Integrated Care (AIC) set up the Community Resource, Engagement and Support Teams (CREST) to reach out to persons who may be at risk of dementia or mental health issues. CREST provide mental health information and education to the public through their outreach activities. For persons screened to have mental health or dementia symptoms, the teams will offer basic emotional support for the persons or their caregivers, and link the persons to appropriate services in the community for further intervention, as well as social assistance. As of December 2017, AIC has worked with community partners to establish a network of 33 CREST teams.

10.         Brahm Centre is one of our CREST partners, serving the Tampines, Macpherson and Simei regions. The Centre runs free health education talks and counselling services, and dementia and depression screening for the residents in these areas. One beneficiary, an elderly lady diagnosed with mild dementia and high blood pressure, had refused treatment and would often leave her flat alone to wander around the neighbourhood. The centre’s staff often searched for her to ensure her safety. After much persistence and with the support of her children, they convinced the elderly lady to begin routine visits to the Dementia Day Care Centre. I am heartened to hear that she now thoroughly enjoys her visits to the centre, and the Brahm Centre staff will sometimes accompany her home, given their close rapport.

Shared responsibility of all to promote mental health and wellness

11.         A whole-of-society approach is required to help build mental resilience in our people. In tandem with the mental wellness programmes the government provides, it is heartening to see the voluntary sector initiating many programmes to promote stronger mental resilience and reach out to those who need our help.

12.         I would like to commend Brahm Centre and our many mental health partners for your unwavering work to support and enable persons with mental health conditions to continue living in their own home and in the community.

13.         I look forward to your continued contributions in helping to develop positive mental well-being in Singapore. We hope that platforms such as this conference will spark more conversations and provide opportunities for new collaborations to promote mental health and well-being in Singapore. As a community, we can become pillars of resilience for others to lean on, and help to strengthen them in the process. I wish everyone a fruitful day as we learn from our experts, and I do hope that you will enjoy this conference tremendously and learn from it.

Thank you.