Name: Khew Shu Wen Joanna Details of Source: Report on aging population by CAI Word Count: 542

1 Overview Our project aims to improve the relationship of youths with their grandparents. I thought it would be useful to look at what the government is trying to do to integrate elderly into society to see if there are any useful ideas my group can adapt. The source I chose to evaluate is a report by the Committee of Aging Issues(CAI) on Singapores aging population. I have specifically chosen to evaluate Chapter 6 Page 59-64 of the report Opportunities for Seniors: Active Lifestyles and Well-Being.

2 Source and Content reliability The CAI is a ministerial committee formed to oversee aging issues in Singapore. It is an inter agency forum that discusses and puts up proposals related to aging issue. The committee is co-chaired by Senior Minister of State for Health and Information, Communications and the Arts, Dr Balaji Sadasivan, and Parliamentary Secretary for Community Development, Youth and National Development Dr Mohamad Maliki Osman. The CAI also has representation from the general public as well as people from private and government sectors.

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The government officials of the committee have the authority as well as the moral obligation to provide accurate information. So the reports basis has authority and relevance. Moreover, the committee also has people from the general public and private sectors, so we can assume that the report will not be one with a purely one sided view from the government.

3 Source usefulness The CAI recommends the government promote social integration through: (1) promoting healthy living, (2) encouraging the development of active lifestyles and social networks, (3) encourage seniors to learn and contribute to society and (4) build strong family ties. I think my group can adopt a similar approach in solving the problem of emotional and physical distancing between youths and elderly.

3.1 New way to look at issue and tweaking of old solution So far, all the solutions that my group has came up with, mainly targeted youths. This made me realise that my groups solution has been rather one sided.

Hence I will suggest to my group to add in solutions that target grandparents as well. For example, we could organize a 2 day camp. (Originally, it was just a 1 day camp, teaching youths dialects) So on the 1st day, grandparents will be taught simple English while grandchildren will be taught the dialect their grandparents are speaking separately.

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On the 2nd day, we could perhaps bring both grandparent and child together and play games based on whatever knowledge they have attained from day one. For example, we could play a taboo-like game. A word would be set and the grandparent will have to describe the word in English and the grandchild would try to guess that word in the dialect they just learnt.

This way, not just will the grandchild learn more about the language their grandparents speak, the grandparent will also learn more about English. At the same time, through games, it will facilitate bonding between them.

3.2 Improvisation to old solution In response to (3), the CAI recommended that universities and polytechnics provide more learning opportunities to seniors by providing courses that may be of interest to them. My group has suggested opening a dialect workshop for youths. However, it would be hard to generate interest and make youths join the workshop voluntarily. So perhaps, it would be a better idea to make it a compulsory course in universities instead.

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