Who cares for caregivers? 10 agencies get new grant to expand support, respite care in S’pore

SINGAPORE – While transferring her 13-year-old daughter Sarah – who has multiple disabilities and is unable to walk or talk – from her bed to a chair at home, Madam Jasmine Lee fell.

The 2025 accident resulted in Sarah breaking her left femur, leaving Madam Lee, 41, overwhelmed with guilt.

The mother of two had lost her balance as she was not used to the teen’s growing weight, yet she could not help but feel the fall was preventable.

After she shared this in a group chat with fellow caregivers of people with special needs, reassuring messages flooded in, like this one: “Hey, it’s not your fault”, “I’ve had similar experiences too.”

“Compared with (hearing from) someone who doesn’t have a special needs kid, it is a lot more assuring because they have been through that journey. They know what it is really like,” said Madam Lee, who also has a 15-year-old son.

This “magic” of peer support is what Dr Lim Hong Huay, founder of CaringSG – a non-profit supporting caregivers of children with special needs and people with disabilities (PWDs) – hopes more caregivers can experience.

Within the next three years, CaringSG aims to form support networks among parents of children with special needs in 10 schools, connect them to community resources and train them in caregiving skills.

Its Parent Peer Support programme, launched in April with the Ministry of Education, brings structure to current support groups in schools, which Dr Lim said are largely informal and may not be well-resourced.

The programme was recently awarded the Income OrangeAid Caregiver Support Accelerator Grant, which has funded the caregiver initiatives of 10 social service agencies.

Income OrangeAid is Income Insurance’s community development platform. The insurer and the National Council of Social Service (NCSS) announced the first grant call awardees on March 10.

A second grant call is tentatively planned for 2027, and the $10 million grant aims to support up to 20 caregiver programmes run by social service agencies.

Overlooked group

Several grantees told The Straits Times that there are currently few avenues for funding for caregiver-focused programmes.

Schemes such as the Home Caregiving Grant and Caregivers Training Grant aim to alleviate caregiving expenses, or train caregivers to look after their loved ones. However, they do not focus on the caregivers’ own well-being.

Yet, their needs are immense.

Ms June Sim, who heads TOUCH Community Services’ Caregivers Support Group, said: “There are sacrifices that (caregivers) make, emotions that they have to manage, guilt or grief, and they have to do it on their own.”

NCSS’ 2024 Quality of Life Study found that caregivers in Singapore had a lower quality of life than non-caregivers, in both physical health and social relationships.

Income Insurance chief executive Andrew Yeo said caregivers are essential to families and communities, but their needs are often overlooked.

He noted that many caregiver initiatives tend to be short-term and focus mainly on care recipients. The grant plugs this gap by giving multi-year funding for long-term programmes, he said.

Each programme will receive up to $200,000 per year in the first two years, and up to $100,000 in the third year.

The Government’s SG Gives matching grant will provide $1.50 for every $1 of the grant amount between financial years 2025 and 2027, allocating it according to programme gaps.

Results will be tracked using NCSS’ sector evaluation framework, which provides consistency over how programme outcomes are measured across the social service sector.

“Our goal is to create a scalable model for caregiver support in Singapore. The grant helps agencies build strong, sustainable programmes and measure what works,” said Mr Yeo.

Much-needed break

The grantees said the money will ease their fund-raising pressures and help them get their caregiver-focused programmes off the ground or expand them to benefit more people.

The Muscular Dystrophy Association (Singapore) (MDAS) has offered respite care services for about 40 caregivers since 2013, and has seen the needs of the caregivers increase over the years as they get older.

Caring for a person with muscular dystrophy is a mammoth task, involving feeding and bathing, hoisting them between wheelchairs and beds, and constantly waking up at night to help them turn over, said Ms Judy Wee, MDAS’ executive director.

In respite care, trained professionals take over caregivers’ duties at home for a few hours or days so they can catch a break. Some caregivers use the time to work, do activities they enjoy or catch up on rest.

Caregivers pay $30 per hour or less with subsidies for the service, but it is not enough to fund the manpower-intensive programme, said Ms Wee.

She said the grant allows them to offer the service – Care At Your Doorstep – to other organisations such as the Motor Neurone Disease Association Singapore. It hopes to reach over 130 caregivers.

Mrs Janice Sng, 57, whose son Daniel, 21, has Duchenne muscular dystrophy, has not travelled overseas since he had spinal fusion surgery in 2023, as she needs to adjust his sleeping position at night.

Besides the physical strain, the mother of four said caregiving comes with the emotional weight of frustration and guilt, including wondering if she is neglecting her other children.

The full-time caregiver is considering MDAS’ respite care service so she can plan a short holiday with her husband – their first in three years. “It doesn’t really matter where. Just taking a break helps you to come back refreshed,” said Mrs Sng.

CaringSG’s Dr Lim said caregivers ultimately know their loved ones better than any other professional.

Dr Lim said: “If you support the caregiver well, the family does well, the PWD will be well.”

Awarded caregiver grant proposals