NDR 2025: Age Well Neighbourhoods will help improve seniors’ access to healthcare, social activities

SINGAPORE – With more seniors preferring to age at home and within the community they live in, Singapore will be rolling out a scheme to provide them with the support to do so.

Called Age Well Neighbourhoods, the initiative was announced by Prime Minister Lawrence Wong in his National Day Rally speech on Aug 17.

The first of these neighbourhoods will be launched in Toa Payoh, one of Singapore’s oldest towns, as well as in “one or two other places” with a higher concentration of seniors, he added.

“Nearly one-quarter of residents in Toa Payoh are 65 and above – it is already a super-aged town.”

PM Wong said that while many of the seniors live with caregivers – their children or domestic helpers – more are living on their own.

This reflects Singapore’s changing demographics, where there are more singles and couples without children. Even among those with children, family sizes are smaller, he added.

“So many seniors choose to live independently, in order not to burden their children. We have been studying how to better support seniors in Toa Payoh and other older towns.”

He said that while Community Care Apartments (CCAs), a joint initiative by the National Development and Health ministries, are an answer to tackle long-term care and living arrangements, they are not the primary solution to Singapore’s seniors ageing in place. For one thing, there is a limit to how many of such flats can be built, he added.

CCAs are HDB flats that combine housing with care arrangements for seniors. These flats come with senior-friendly features such as wheelchair-accessible bathrooms with grab bars and slip-resistant floors.

The senior residents subscribe to a package of services, such as home fixes, health checks or housekeeping.

There is currently only one

completed CCA project in Singapore in Bukit Batok

.

Another CCA project in Queenstown is expected to be completed in 2028, while a third project was launched in Bedok in December 2023.

“Furthermore, many seniors do not want to move out. They have lived in their homes for many years. They are used to their neighbours and familiar with their current environment. So they prefer to age where they are, and we will need to provide for them as they get older,” PM Wong said.

Within every CCA block, there is a centre with full-time staff who work round the clock to coordinate the delivery of the services and attend to urgent needs.

The centre also serves as an activity centre for residents to gather daily, meet friends and take part in activities.

PM Wong said he had visited Singapore’s first CCA project, Harmony Village @ Bukit Batok, earlier this year.

“The residents told me they were very happy to live there,” he added.

“I told Desmond Lee, who was then Minister for National Development, that we needed more CCAs! Now Chee Hong Tat in MND (Ministry of National Development) is pursuing this.”

But while the Government will build more CCAs in HDB towns in the coming years, such flats cannot be the main solution.

“But we can take the essential elements from the CCA and apply the same thinking to the wider neighbourhood – to build Age Well Neighbourhoods that support our seniors where they are,” PM Wong said.

For example, he said, the Government will make “physical touchpoints more accessible to seniors”.

There were six active ageing centres in Toa Payoh four years ago.

“There are now 13 (such centres). That may sound like a lot, but some seniors still have to walk more than 1km just to reach the nearest one. So we will identify new sites, to make it more convenient,” he added.

Having more space also means more activities and facilities, such as exercise classes and gym rooms.

“We can offer more varied forms of exercise – even kickboxing, which some seniors have taken up; or this activity called cardio drumming,” he said, referring to an exercise that is a mix of aerobic workout and drumming.

The Prime Minister also noticed that such activities appeal more to women, “so we are also working on programmes that can interest the men, including hands-on activities like carpentry workshops”.

He said some seniors may also want to contribute their time to volunteer at these centres.

He cited a group that had offered DIY repair services for wheelchairs, saying: “It shows that seniors don’t just want to be looked after, they want to care for others too.”

Another essential element from the CCA, such as home-based services, will be expanded in the Age Well Neighbourhoods as well, PM Wong said.

Seniors can choose what services they need, such as simple home repairs and basic health checks.

“For seniors with additional needs, we will provide additional options like housekeeping, laundry and meal deliveries; and assistance with activities of daily living like showering and feeding,” he said.

He added that there will be dedicated care staff to coordinate these services, visit seniors regularly and be first responders in times of emergency.

He also promised to bring healthcare services closer to the seniors through Age Well Neighbourhoods, with more care facilities for those who need rehabilitation and physiotherapy.

“Public hospitals will set up health posts in the community. These health posts will deploy nurses on the ground more regularly. They will help with post-discharge follow-up and medication management,” he said.

PM Wong added: “Seniors can drop by for basic care and health consultations without having to travel to a clinic.”

The Prime Minister said that in other countries, what he had described might be called a retirement village.

“But in Singapore, we don’t want our seniors to live in separate isolated places,” he said.

“We will build a Singapore where every senior – no matter where they live – can age with dignity, purpose and joy; a Singapore where we support one another – as neighbours and friends in our community.

“That is how we will grow old – not in isolation, never alone, but always together as one Singapore family.”

Mr Foo Cexiang, an MP for Tanjong Pagar GRC, welcomed PM Wong’s announcement to launch the Age Well Neighbourhoods initiative in areas with a higher concentration of seniors.

He oversees the Tanjong Pagar-Tiong Bahru ward within the constituency.

He told The Straits Times that his constituency is one of the oldest in Singapore, and that the seniors there “want to age where they live because they have ties and strong sense of belonging in the area”.

Mr Foo, who is on the government parliamentary committees for National Development and Sustainability and the Environment, added that he hopes his constituency would be selected for the Age Well Neighbourhoods scheme.

Tanjong Pagar is separated from Tiong Bahru by the Central Expressway, he said, adding that residents do not tend to cross from one neighbourhood to the next for activities.

“I believe mobility is a big part of it. The other reason is that it takes time to travel – that also increases the inertia,” he said.

Mr Foo added that while his constituency has existing schemes to support seniors, providing amenities and home care services within the neighbourhood “is on another level”.

“Having home care services go in and show seniors the warmth and concern of the community, build friendships, and from that process, encourage them to come out of the home, I think that is the virtuous circle we are trying to create,” he added.

Read more: Key announcements from PM Wong’s first National Day Rally

Watch PM Wong’s National Day Rally speech here: