SAY your father has been felled by a stroke and you need information on how to get a wheelchair at a subsidised price and tips on how your maid can look after him.

Help is a phone call away. Call the newly-set up Centre for Enabled Living (CEL) and staff there will tell you if you qualify for a wheelchair grant and how to sign your maid up for training - and all for free.

Funded by the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports, the centre will help disabled and elderly persons and their families who need advice, referrals and even financial aid.

It takes over the role of the Thye Hua Kwan Moral Society's Disability Information and Referral Centre, which no longer exists, and its services cover both disabled and old people.

The CEL's chairman, Mr Chua Chin Kiat, who was the director of the Singapore Prison Service from 1998 to 2007, said its key role is to facilitate and fill a 'coordination gap'.

'So many agencies deal with different aspects of disability, but there isn't proper coordination, so someone can be double-served or triple-served,' he said.

The centre does not provide direct services but works with over 300 existing voluntary welfare organisations and service providers.

CEL, which was set up in November last year and will be launched officially next month, already has about 1,000 clients whom it helps through e-mail or phone.

Read the full story in Friday's edition of The Straits Times.