He helps long-staying patients prepare for life outside IMH

At the Institute of Mental Health (IMH), senior nurse clinician Aziz Ab Hamed, 60, has been preparing a selected group of long-staying patients for life outside the hospital.

The work started in 2015 when he and several colleagues spearheaded a rehabilitation programme that included activities like gardening to equip these patients with independent living and vocational skills.

It has since led to the discharge of 120 such patients, whose stay at IMH lasted for about a year to as long as 18 years. They include a man in his 60s now living at a care home and others in their 20s and 30s. The majority have schizophrenia and have never worked.

Yesterday, Mr Aziz was among six recipients of this year's President's Award for Nurses, the highest accolade in Singapore's nursing profession.

Mr Aziz also set up a hydroponics garden where patients grow vegetables, which are now sold at the IMH lobby twice a week. He said this gardening project had started small, with soil gardening.

As motivation, the patients - Mr Aziz calls them clients so as not to treat them as patients - are paid a small hourly rate that corresponds with the difficulty level of the work, from seed sowing to transplanting to harvesting.

He also started a fund with the excess money, and set up a cafe in the long-stay wards to train selected patients in cooking local dishes and kitchen management skills, and is now thinking up new projects.

"In the past, we made sure they ate and slept well. Now, we embrace recovery", which means helping patients pick up skills to survive on their own, said Mr Aziz, who pursued a master's in nursing (mental health) at the National University of Singapore at the age of 48. "I believe I can do more to instil hope in my clients, to make their lives more meaningful."

Before joining nursing 30 years ago, Mr Aziz, who has two adult children, had other jobs, including being a production operator, birdkeeper and forklift driver. Joyce Teo