SINGAPORE - Social service agencies and volunteer groups can apply to the National Council of Social Service (NCSS) for permission to run services that provide essential aid, such as food and financial support, during the month-long circuit breaker.
Minister for Social and Family Development (MSF) Desmond Lee described the need to "strike a sensible balance" between ensuring that vulnerable people get essential support and maintaining the need for Singaporeans to stay at home to stem the spread of the coronavirus outbreak.
Mr Lee said in a Facebook post late on Monday (April 13): "The NCSS will coordinate and work with you to ensure that our vulnerable get support during the circuit breaker, while ensuring that they are kept safe and your volunteers and staff achieve stringent safe distancing. Some activities must continue, others can be modified or temporarily suspended."
Mr Lee noted that many groups have asked if they can continue with their community service outreach during the month-long closure of most workplaces, except for essential services such as supermarkets, clinics and key banking services.
The MSF has also suspended or reduced non-essential social services during this period.
Only essential social services are continuing to operate, such as the social service offices, which administer the Government's financial aid schemes, shelters for the homeless and homes for youth offenders.
MSF-funded social service agencies involved in crisis intervention for serious, high-risk and urgent cases, like domestic violence, are also still open.
However, family service centres are closed, except for limited provision of services in critical cases, said MSF in its press release on April 3.
Montfort Care, which provides social services through its family service centres and programmes for seniors, says its staff are continuing to provide services remotely through the phone or online.
It is applying for permission to carry out certain services in person, such as management of clients in crisis who are suicidal or victims of family violence. This is critical as they are in grave predicaments and it is more effective to manage such a situation in person, its spokesman said.
Homeless Hearts of Singapore, a charity helping people who sleep rough, has applied and received the go-ahead to continue its outreach work to urgent cases, like those who are seriously ill. It will keep its volunteers' physical movements to a minimum or what is absolutely necessary.
Its co-founder, Mr Abraham Yeo, said sometimes, the only way to help homeless people is to meet them in person to ascertain their situation and to attend to their needs.
Social workers said the stay at home rule has increased tensions in many of the families they see. This is worse for those living in cramped quarters like one or two-room rental flats.
It does not help that a significant number of their clients, like those who work in food and beverage sector or delivery, have seen their incomes fall given the ongoing crisis and this adds to the stress at home, said AMP Singapore executive director Zarina Yusof. AMP Singapore is a non-profit group serving the Muslim community.
Some family violence specialist centres, like Trans Safe Centre and Care Corner's Project Start, said they have seen an escalation and recurrence of violence among existing clients in the past few weeks, since stricter social distancing measures took effect.
