YIP RONG YU, NATASHA

Abstract

Our Group was attached to Dr Carol Tan, who specializes in Geriatric Medicine and supporting Active Ageing Programmes through The Good Life Co-operative. Through this, we were able to learn more about the aging population situation and how differently healthcare for the elderly is carried out.

Background Information of the organisation:

The Good Life Co-operative (TGLC) is a non profit social enterprise that aims to reach out to seniors 50 years and above and their families. As Singapore grapples with issues such as ageing population and rising healthcare costs, the launch of TGLC in 2014 was deemed a timely move. The Good Life’s mission is mainly to provide quality healthcare to members so they are able to live long, well and carefree. They do so by working together with reputed medical professionals to create programmes that make healthy living desirable, attainable and fun. The approach TGLC takes is more preventive in nature so as not to be over-dependent on public resources. As such, they focus more on educating the public on healthcare. Through which, they hope that the public can take greater responsibility for their own health and age gracefully.

TGLC is also one of the registered cooperatives in Singapore under the Singapore National Co-operative Federation (SCNF). The SCNF was established in 1980 as Singapore’s collective representation of the co-operative movement. These co-ops have a common goal of achieving social and economic end to benefit the community at large.

Our Attachment

The ultimate aim of our attachment is to let us acquire more new knowledge on healthcare for the elderly and hone our communication skills with the seniors to improve their health practices. The value of such an attachment is to allow us to gain experience on what’s truly going on in the healthcare industry. In our case, as Doctor Carol Tan specializes in Geriatrics, we got to take a closer look at how healthcare is provided for the elderly. This is a very important sector in Singapore today as we have an ageing population.

As our attachment requires us to learn more about the healthcare sector of the elderly, we were involved in a number of tasks, assigned to us by Dr Carol Tan.

Important Tasks And Items We Participated In:

• MoCA (Montreal Cognitive Assessment)
• Paya Lebar Kovan Community Center Event
• Visit To Assisi Hospice
• Interviews and talks arranged by Dr Carol Tan for us to hear from the people with experiences with the healthcare sector.

MoCA (Montreal Cognitive Assessment)

The MoCA Test is something new that we learned during this attachment. It is a very important part of our learning as the MoCA Test is used to determine a person's Mental Capacity by assessing the different cognitive domains, and could be used to screen a person for possible cognitive impairment. Dementia is a brain disease that is becoming increasingly common in the elderly. As our attachment mentor is a Geriatrician, the MoCA is an important part of our attachment and crucial for us to know about to carry out another task.

Paya Lebar Kovan Community Center Screening

After we were trained to conduct the MoCA, we were able to carry out another task which allowed us to see how healthcare can be brought to the community.

Different Aspects Of Healthcare

We learnt about a new aspect of healthcare which helps the patients have a better quality of life despite their life threatening illnesses and the pain they go through.

Healthcare Takes a Whole Community

Healthcare is not carried out by solely doctors and nurses, there are many other people who work tirelessly in order to make the healthcare provided the best it can be.

LPA (Lasting Power of Attorney)

A Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) is a legal document that allows a person who is 21 years of age or older to plan the management of his affairs in the event of a loss of mental capacity.

Our Final Project

To consolidate our learning, our group produced a video that consists of our reflections after being involved in the tasks assigned to us. Each of us came up with a total of 3 points of learning and chose the best point to say for the filming. To reflect our diverse culture in Singapore, some of us presented our points in our mother tongue languages for the filming.

The video was filmed,edited and subtitled over the course of a week.

One difficulty we faced in producing the video is coming up with the idea for the video. We initially planned to created a stop motion video to make the video more interesting, however we realized that a stop motion video does not reflect the content that we want to show in the mood we intend it to. In addition, we had limited amount of time to complete a stop motion video as we could only start filming the video after going through all the task given to us, so as to provide an all-embracing reflection.

3 content knowledge / skills learnt

1.Learning what is Palliative Care

Palliative care refers to an interdisciplinary medical caregiving approach aimed at optimizing quality of life and mitigating suffering among people with serious, complex illness.

Before this attachment, I did not know anything about palliative care, what it is and what it does. However, this attachment has granted me the opportunity to take a look inside the Assisi Hospice and how the systems in there work, how the staffs carry out their duties and ensure comfort for their patients.

2. Learning how to conduct the MoCA Test properly.

Although this test is a very important test to screen for cognitive impairment, I did not know anything about it. Now, not only have I learnt about this test, I also know how to conduct the test properly after receiving the training from Dr Kiera during our time at Lundbeck. Furthermore, I learnt that when conducting the MoCA test on elderly, we should go at a pace comfortable for them and make the instructions we have to give short and easy to understand so we do not confuse them and stress them. I realised that there were many small details we should take note of when conducting the test to get the best and most accurate results

3. Learning about the LPA and clarifying misconceptions.

A Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) is a legal document that allows a person who is 21 years of age or older to plan the management of his affairs in the event of a loss of mental capacity.

In the LPA, the person making the LPA can appoints one or more persons to act and make decisions on his behalf.

Especially in old age, we are more prone to having brain diseases such as Dementia, this is when such legal document comes in to ensure that everything is taken cared of. However, this can be done by anyone above the age of 21 and not only when we are older, a misconception I have that was clarified.

2 interesting aspects of your learning

1. One insight I had during this attachment was that to work in healthcare, we really need dedication to the work we do and be very meticulous when carrying out duties. Especially so in healthcare, where every detail is important and can have large effects on the patients health or wellbeing.

2. Now knowing how much emphasis the team at the Assisi Hospice put on the comfort and the wellbeing of patients, I realised that they take care of every little detail such as not restraining the patient, helping the patient to go out for a walk even if it is not convenient for him or her to go out. Such small gestures could make a patient feel respected, comfortable and not pulled down by their illness

1 takeaway for life

1. What I gained after the attachment that cannot be gained easily is the opportunity to witness for myself how it takes from the person individually, their family, various health organizations , hospitals and even the community as a whole to care for one person's health and wellbeing. Thanks to this attachment, I am able to see what is done for the health of people in the span of a month.