I would like to record my heartfelt thanks to Assoc Prof Lee Wei Ling for empathising with my predicament. Her compassion for caregivers is commendable.

However, I have never viewed caring for my mentally ill wife as a burden. Rather, I see it as a responsibility, practising the marriage vow that speaks of honouring, comforting and loving my wife in sickness and in health, for better or worse. People with mental illness just need one person to love them and they will recover.

Though my wife has recovered from schizophrenia, the possibility of a relapse is always there, especially in a very stressful place like Singapore. Having cared for her through her illness for 32 years, I know only too well the agony of seeing a loved one suffer so horrifically.

In November last year, my wife had a knee replacement on her left leg and now the other leg has arthritis. The doctors at Tan Tock Seng hospital had given her two options: operate or go on painkillers. Six weeks supply of painkillers cost $142. How do caregivers who give up their jobs cope with such high costs?

As Dr Lee rightly pointed out, more chronic stay facilities are needed to tackle mental illness and other related chronic illnesses. But much more has to be done to get society to accept that mental illness will be part of an increasingly complex urban lifestyle.

Employment for persons who have recovered from mental illness has to be a top priority. The demand that job seekers must declare if they have a history of mental illness on job application forms is discriminatory and has to be removed if we want to get more people to seek treatment from depression and other forms of mental disorders. I am disturbed that the tripartite committee and the Ministry of Manpower have not addressed this issue.

Despite the huge challenges I face in caring for my wife, I will continue to care and support her to my last dying breath. Because if schizophrenia is part of my wife's life, then it will surely be part of my life. And that will always be the guiding, motivating force of my life.

Raymond Anthony Fernando