A mental health task force that was created during the Covid-19 pandemic will not end its work with the pandemic but will be transformed into an inter-agency platform overseeing mental health and well-being beyond it.
Announcing this during the debate on his ministry's budget yesterday, Senior Minister of State for Health Janil Puthucheary said the task force would focus on "cross-cutting issues that require multi-and inter-agency collaborations".
Dr Janil said the task force, which was set up in October last year to look into the psycho-social impact of the pandemic on the population, has highlighted three areas of work.
First, it will develop a national mental health and well-being strategy to bring in line various agencies that work in these areas. Second, it will develop a national mental health resources Web page to help individuals access useful and accurate information.
Third, it will establish a national mental health competency training framework to standardise training curricula on mental health in the community.
Task force chairman Chua Hong Choon told The Straits Times yesterday that the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) will lead the development of this framework.
Its work will include coming up with a national curriculum for the management of mental health issues among front-line workers, and more training to bridge the knowledge gap in mental health among general practitioners.
Professor Chua, who is the deputy group chief executive officer (clinical) of the National Healthcare Group, said the pandemic has had an adverse impact on people through the fear of infection, the loss of social connections, and the disruption to livelihoods.
But it has also made people realise how prevalent mental health issues are, and it has given agencies renewed impetus to help those in distress.
"This helped to de-stigmatise mental health conditions, and encourage more people to practise self-care and seek help from the community," said Prof Chua.
There is a strong commitment at the government level to invest resources to strengthen mental health resilience in the population, he said, adding: "There is a saying within the task force that as we vaccinate ourselves against the Covid-19 virus, building resilience is our 'vaccine' against mental health issues."
More details will be shared about the task force when they are ready.
Dr Janil said in Parliament that Singapore is on track to meet its end-of-year targets for the Community Mental Health Masterplan, which was launched in 2012 and enhanced in 2017.
In 2017, then Senior Minister of State for Health Amy Khor said there would be 50 community outreach teams and 18 community intervention teams by the end of 2021.
Dr Janil told the House that the 50 community outreach teams have already been set up and reached out to more than 350,000 vulnerable people, including young people and their families, and elderly residents with their caregivers. There are also 21 community intervention teams now providing mental health interventions such as psycho-social therapeutic interventions and counselling. This has all come ahead of the previous deadline.
Singapore also now has more than 220 general practitioners and 14 polyclinics that can provide patients with either mental health services or dementia services, or both.
Refurbishment works at IMH, which began in 2018, are also expected to be completed by the end of next year.
IMH will have a new short-stay unit to manage patients who need a few days of observation and treatment, six upgraded acute psychiatric wards that can be reconfigured for more efficient care of patients, and two new rehabilitative wards recreating a home-like environment to facilitate recovery.
It will also have an upgraded child and adolescent psychiatry ward to provide inpatient psychiatric care for younger patients and an upgraded Addiction Medicine ward to facilitate the recovery and rehabilitation of patients.
Dr Janil said: "Our ability to get this far was the result of many years of investing in our people, facilities, systems, research and capabilities. We must learn the lessons from this experience. The preparations for the next crisis are under way and require that we keep ourselves and our healthcare system in good health. Prevention is best; preparation is also necessary."
