Speech by Minister of State for Health, Dr Amy Khor, at the Launch of Hua Mei Elder-Centred Programme of Integrated Comprehensive Care (EPICC), 12 April 2013

Dr. Mary Ann Tsao, President, Tsao Foundation

Distinguished guests

1. Good morning. It gives me great pleasure to join the Tsao Foundation today in launching the Hua Mei Elder-centred Programme of Integrated Comprehensive Care, or the Hua Mei EPICC for short.

2. I would like to first recognise the immense efforts of the Tsao Foundation. This year marks the Foundation’s 20th anniversary. Let me take this opportunity to congratulate the Foundation, under the able leadership of Dr Mary Ann Tsao, for two decades of hard work and dedication in pioneering models of eldercare, capacity-building, research and collaboration towards improving the ways in which longevity is approached. Indeed it has been an epic journey which has shown Dr Tsao and her team's vision and progerssive ideas and views. The Tsao Foundation has indeed been a pillar of support for many individuals and families, and especially the elderly in the community.

Introduction

3. Today, we celebrate yet another milestone for the Tsao Foundation as they embark on the Hua Mei EPICC. Singapore is ageing rapidly. More than a quarter of
the current citizen population will be aged 65 years and above in 2030. Our seniors of tomorrow will live longer, have better education, and also higher expectations of the healthcare options available as well as the quality of care provided into their later life.

4. We thus need to invest well and early in building up our care services and facilities to respond to the needs of tomorrow. We want our seniors to lead active and meaningful lives when they are fully functional and when they are not, to age gracefully where they live. We also aim to enable care-givers to be able to care for the seniors for as long as they can.

5. An area of emphasis for our ageing-in-place strategy would be to empower seniors with more care options. Beyond institutional options like nursing homes, we also want to develop viable care options for seniors to be cared for in their homes and in the community where they are most comfortable in. If you ask our seniors, most of them would also prefer to spend their golden years in surroundings that they are familiar with.

HUA MEI EPICC

6. My Ministry is therefore actively encouraging the development of new community-based initiatives to provide our seniors with more options to age gracefully and successfully at home and in the community. Tsao Foundation’s EPICC programme is a great example of this. This programme provides seniors who would otherwise have to be institutionalised with a community-based alternative care option, drawing on the experience and expertise of the Tsao Foundation’s Hua Mei Centre for Successful Ageing, which already has well-established home care, case management and elder clinic services today.

7. Funded by the Tote Board Community Healthcare Fund, EPICC is modelled after the US-based “Programme for All-Inclusive Care of the Elderly”, which offers team-managed, comprehensive care through a combination of centre and home-based services. This includes multi-disciplinary services such as rehabilitative, pyscho-emotional, and social care, 24-hour medical coverage, selected home help services, as well as transport services. These seniors typically have multiple chronic medical conditions and physical frailty. Because many of them experience weak family and social support, EPICC focuses on the individual needs and resources of the seniors to conduct care planning. The team-based approach allows every staff member of the various disciplines to work closely to provide person-centric care, thereby providing the senior with the right level of care services he needs to remain in the community.

8. From the perspective of the frail senior, both the medical and social care needs are met through EPICC’s integrated care model, which is especially significant in supporting seniors who do not have dedicated caregivers at home.

9. The Tsao Foundation shared with me the example of Mr Chng Peng Choon, one of the 60 seniors whom EPICC has served. Mr Chng is a 63 year old widower with no children and is living alone. He was assessed to be at high risk of falls, with multiple chronic conditions such as diabetes and hypertension, and was also diagnosed with depression after the loss of his wife. This impacted his ability and motivation to manage his own medical conditions and cope with independent living in the community on his own. Nonetheless, he did not wish to be enrolled into a nursing home as far as possible, and was thus referred to the Hua Mei EPICC.

10. Since his enrolment into EPICC, Mr Chng has been well taken care of by the multi-disciplinary team of healthcare professionals. This includes the primary care physician, who helps him to avoid unnecessary visits to medical specialists and empowering him through education on his medical conditions and treatment plans, and the nurse, who ensures that he complies with his medication regime and assists him with insulin injections he would not be able to manage alone. In addition, Mr Chng was referred to a counsellor to better support his emotional well-being. Today, Mr Chng is able to live well in the community, and is motivated to help himself and others around him by participating actively as a volunteer in some of Tsao Foundation’s other programmes.

11. Positive patient outcomes such as that of Mr Chng give us greater impetus to explore more innovative programmes such as EPICC to support our ageing-in-place strategy.

Conclusion

12. As our healthcare providers continue to take steps towards integrating care across different settings, the government will support you in your efforts. I would like to congratulate the Tsao Foundation for taking the lead in starting the Hua Mei EPICC programme, so that our frail seniors can benefit from the service and continue to remain and age successfully in the community.

13. I wish you all a great day ahead. Thank you.