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‘We should worry about the dementia epidemic,’ says CEO of St Luke’s Hospital for the elderly
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St Luke’s Hospital CEO, Associate Professor Tan Boon Yeow says more needs to be done to improve the level of dementia care in Singapore: "The percentage of people ageing is growing at a rapid rate and we know that dementia is related to age."
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SINGAPORE - It is not your usual hospital ward. For one thing, there is a courtyard filled with plants. There is also an activity corner, with shelves holding plastic baskets filled with toy fish and vegetables such as broccoli and eggplant. Framed pictures – mostly of trees and plants – line the walls.
In one bed, a woman rests, her bony hands cradling a baby doll clad in powder-blue rompers with the words Little Brother emblazoned across the chest. Around the corner, another woman, with snowy white hair, tells a nurse in a mixture of Mandarin and Hokkien that soya sauce is an essential ingredient for fried rice.
