Featured on Neighbourhood Fixer
First time speaking mandarin live!
1) https://www.mewatch.sg/watch/Neighbourhood-Fixer-E4-Jurong-Bukit-Batok-195635
From the 38.00 mark (or 6.49 from the end)
Or
First time speaking mandarin live!
1) https://www.mewatch.sg/watch/Neighbourhood-Fixer-E4-Jurong-Bukit-Batok-195635
From the 38.00 mark (or 6.49 from the end)
Or
Prefer to look after your elderly parent or grandparent at home? You’re not alone. However, there’s a cost to this – mainly in the form of financial and caregiver stress.
It can be extremely tiring to care for an elderly person, let alone one who’s also disabled or ill. I’ve met a patient who had to take care of not one, but two parents with severe dementia. Imagine that!
Fortunately, there are various grants available for home care patients. We’ve helped you to curate all the must-know subsidy schemes in one place – just to make your life a little easier (:
The PioneerDAS is a monthly lifelong cash assistance of $100 a month.
It’s meant for Singaporean citizens born before 1950, who need supervision or physical assistance with at least 3 of the 6 following activities of daily living:
Eldershield and IDAPE are largely similar. However, you can only be on ONE of these two schemes (not both).
For Eldershield, it’s a monthly payout of $400 a month, for a maximum period of 72 months.
To qualify, patients must require supervision or physical assistance with at least 3 of the 6 activities of daily living (eating, bathing, dressing, transferring, toileting and walk).
All Singapore Citizens and Permanent Residents with Medisave accounts are automatically enrolled in ElderShield at the age of 40, unless you choose to opt out of the scheme.
If you do opt out, you’ll be subject to a medical assessment again. However, if you are severely disabled (unable to perform at least 3 ADLs) prior to the start of your ElderShield enrolment, you may not be eligible for claims.
For IDAPE, it’s a monthly payout of $150 or $250 a month, for a maximum period of 72 months.
To qualify, you must be a Singapore citizen born before 30 September 1932 OR born between 1 October 1932 and 30 September 1962 (both dates inclusive) but with pre-existing disabilities as at 30 September 2002.
To qualify, the per capita household monthly income must be $2,600 or less.
The Foreign Domestic Worker Grant is a monthly cash assistance of $120 for the hiring of a helper.
It’s for Singapore citizens regardless of age, or for permanent residents aged 65 years and above who need supervision or physical assistance with at least 3 of the 6 activities of daily living (eating, bathing, dressing, transferring, toileting and walking).
The Senior’s Mobility and Enabling Fund is a co-payment type subsidy scheme. It applies to 3 main categories:
To qualify for this subsidy, per capita household monthly income must be $1,800 or less.
The Caregiver Training Grant is an annual cash assistance of $200 per patient that lets caregivers attend training courses (not just domestic helpers but next-of-kin also).
The payout can be shared amongst caregivers to allow more than one to attend courses.
Some of these courses can even be arranged in your own home.
Do note that there’s a co-payment of $10 for the next-of-kin for each course.
Need a breather from looking after your elderly at home?
This grant subsidizes respite care – meaning to say, it enables you to temporarily lodge a loved one you’re caring for in a nursing home.
There’s a minimum period of 7 days, and a maximum period of 30 days for temporary lodging.
Do take note of the following caveats:
Dr Lai Junxu is the founder and director of OmniMed Healthcare Holdings, part of HC Surgical Specialists Ltd. His practice is that of home care, and his patients are mainly the elderly with mobility issues, or those with end-stage organ disease or cancer. Dr Lai aims to allow patients to age gracefully and die peacefully at home. In his spare time, Dr Lai spends time with his wife discovering new eating places together, and enjoy accompanying his three young boys at kids-friendly playgrounds and events.
References:
https://www.zaobao.com.sg/sme/sme-interview/story20190725-975359
Dr Lai’s interview with 联合早报 On home care in Singapore and how his practice all started.
Speaker at Digital Healthcare Innovation Conference 2017 on the topic: M-Health from a home care physician’s perspective.
Dr Lai is part of the team awarded the Agency for Integrated Care’s ACES (Outstanding Team) award for Jan-March 2017.
Medical L & C Services Pte Ltd, a subsidiary of OmniMed Healthcare Holdings, has been acquired by HC Surgical Specialists Ltd (www.hcsurgicalspecialists.com)
Click here to read more.
Dr Lai is being featured by Agency for Integrated Care (AIC)’s Community Care Heroes Series. The aim of which is to
1) Educate people on the daily work that they do
2) Tell people about the meaningfulness of their jobs
3) Encourage people to join the sector
Dr Lai’s article in NEXSTEP year 2017 issue 1 (Agency for Integrated Care’s magazine) on how to try to reduce falls in the elderly. Coincidentally, he is the first doctor to contribute to this publication. Click here to read the whole magazine!
Dr Lai Junxu’s first feature in Chinese mainstream media – 健康一 (The 29th issue, available at news stands for the next quarter. A magazine by Singapore Press Holdings) The article talks about home care, particularly – subsidized chronic and palliative home care.
Dr Lai and Dr Yee receiving their postgraduate diploma – 2nd Graduate Diploma in Palliative Medicine graduation ceremony 19 Nov 2016.