Building a society in which the elderly can age with grace and dignity

What must the solution address?

It should be a bottom up approach to address public needs should not require government intervention. Elderly individuals should also be empowered, but not at the expense of the youths to create a civil society and society where fellow citizens progress together. Many seniors would like to continue contributing to society if they are able to remain fit- be it through society, their families, or in the workplace. Therefore, there is a need to improve conditions for them, a change from the current one of them doing entry level jobs.

How can the elderly be enabled?

There is a need to make the environment more elderly friendly, such as by the improvement of public transport. By improving healthcare services, it enables the elderly to be active in society for a longer period of time and can further contribute to the economy- especially in Singapore, a currently aging society. Most important of all, would be to enable the elderly to age with grace would be to have financially stable, and not have to rely on their children for allowance just to get by.

How can the elderly be taken care of?

The children of the elderly should also be involved in the process of being caregivers to the elderly. With more programmes for the elderly to enrich themselves, it is important that the elderly are given opportunities to participate in these activities without the need to rely on others too much. A review of the Tribunal of Maintenance for parents can be made such that anonymous reports can be made, by members of the public as well as the parents, which would allow for a slightly more graceful method of reporting mistreatment. -This can be done through promoting activities right now at grassroots level. Activities should reach out to people of all age. A new fund or scheme can be put into place to allow for greater funding for the elderly with health problems, more so then Medisave. A scheme similar to Medifund can be made as an extension to Medifund- providing a way for the elderly to be able to afford the expensive healthcare that is required, even if they/ their children are unable to afford the medical care they need.

How else can the elderly continue to contribute economically?

In addition, to help the elderly find employment for higher level jobs, a website for the posting of contractual jobs (contracts for 1-2 years of work) can be set up by the government as a central portal for the elderly to be employed. The government can sponsor the cost of hosting the site, and employers can access the site for employees needed to fulfil positions in their company. To increase the value of the elderly, there can also be a system for the calculation of the wage of the worker. This would prevent the exploitation of the workers by employers who underpay. Since some

elderly may not be tech savvy, forms can be filled up in the community centres and the staff can upload the data to the website.