Open Public Suggestion to the Singapore Government: Caregiver leave can help family caregivers a great deal

The salient points raised by the writer are valid concerns which our caregivers face in helping their loved ones cope better (Policies must proactively support caregivers, September 28, 2019. The Straits Times).

 

Caregiving is taxing and a costly affair as most of these caregivers pay a heavy price: Physically, mentally and financially. 

 

As caregiving is often a 24-hour task, many caregivers have to end of giving up their full-time jobs.  

 

Therefore, I am sure our tireless caregivers will welcome the move by the Ministry of Health to provide the much-needed Home Caregiving Grant of $200.

 

An important task for caregivers is to bring their sick loved ones to hospital and clinics on a regular basis. If a caregiver is employed, he/she will have to apply for vacation leave to accompany their loved one for their medical appointment/s.

 

Therefore, to promote caregiving as a noble task, I urge the policy makers to consider providing a caregiver leave scheme of between 3 to 5 days. 

 

Dr Kalyani Kirtikar Mehta was spot on when she pointed out that if caregivers are supported by other family members, the community and the government, they are less likely to suffer burnout.

 

Unfortunately, as caregiving is daunting, most, if not all the time, the caregiver role is often not shared, leaving just one person to handle this unenviable task. It is even more taxing, daunting if any caregiver has to look after a loved one with mental disorders, and I am sure many of our Ministers and Members of Parliament know this only too well. Thus, the support mechanism for caregivers must be put solidly in place and be ion-going.

 

If caregiver leave is implemented, I have every confidence that other family members will step forward and share in caregiving, thereby easing the load of a primary caregiver.

 

In closing, allow me to lead you to video production entitled ODE TO DORIS – Conqueror of Schizophrenia produced by a group of poly students who felt for both myself and my late wife, Doris Lau Siew Lang,

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2j7t3tdiQ6Q

 

Sincerely,

Raymond Anthony Fernando


Reply from MOH


Dear Mr Raymond,

We refer to your email dated 4 October 2019 to the Ministry of Health.

Thank you for your feedback.

You may wish to know that your case is under assessment and we will require some time to review. We will respond in due course.

Thank you.

Yours sincerely,
Jeffrey Lee
for Quality Service Manager
Ministry of Health, Singapore

19^th October 2019

Dear Mr Raymond,

We refer to your email dated 4 October 2019 to the Ministry of Health.

Thank you for your suggestion.

The Government recognises the challenges of caregiving, and the Ministry of Health has thus developed a Caregiver Support Action Plan to strengthen support for senior caregiving. In addition to the Home Caregiving Grant that you have mentioned, the Action Plan also addresses support for caregivers in other areas like workplace support and respite care, based on feedback from caregivers.

We appreciate that there are merits to a caregiver leave scheme, but it may not be the best way to support caregivers. During our consultations with caregivers for the Action Plan last year, many caregivers saw Flexible Work Arrangements (FWAs) as being more sustainable than leave provisions to helping them meet both their work and caregiving commitments in the longer term. For example, working caregivers would like the flexibility to be able to take time-off to tend to their loved ones’ needs, which they often need a few hours, and not need a full day or even half a day leave. Other caregivers might require flexibility to work offsite on occasion while they take care of their loved ones.

Our Tripartite partners share the same view. A key consideration was that having more leave provisions could add cost to businesses, and inadvertently affecting the employability of those with caregiving responsibilities. Hence, a more sustainable approach for both employees and employers would be to support the adoption of FWAs.

As such, the Government has been working with tripartite partners to develop a workplace culture supportive of FWAs. The Work-Life Grant (WLG) funds each company up to $105,000 over two years when their employees adopt FWA. Under the Caregiver Support Action Plan, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) has increased the budget for the WLG in July 2019 from $30M to $100M to allow more companies to benefit from the grant to sustain their employees’ adoption of FWAs. In addition, MOM has also put in place Tripartite Standards on FWAs and Unpaid Leave for Unexpected Care Needs, to increase companies’ adoption of workplace practices to help their employees better manage their work and family responsibilities.

To complement workplace measures, we are also enhancing our respite care services to better support caregivers in their caregiving responsibilities. Caregivers can use the centre-based respite care service if they need a few hours off (e.g. to take a break or attend to their personal matters), or nursing home respite care service for several days to a few weeks (e.g. if their Foreign Domestic Worker is away on home leave).

We have also started a Go Respite pilot since April 2019 to allow caregivers to activate these respite care options more quickly if they pre-enrol onto the pilot in advance. We will also be piloting a new night respite care service by end of this year to support caregivers of seniors with dementia who experience behavioural and sleep issues at night.

We will progressively implement the initiatives laid out in the Caregiver Support Action Plan and continue to review the support measures for our caregivers.

Thank you.

Yours sincerely,

Jeffrey Lee

for Quality Service Manager

Ministry of Health, Singapore