With Singapore’s rapidly ageing population and preference for ageing-in-place, the burden on family caregivers is growing considerably. Yet low fertility rates and decreasing family sizes mean that our population of caregivers is shrinking. The caregiving burden is also likely to fall disproportionately on women in the family, due to gendered cultural norms.

What can be done to ease family caregivers’ burden? What policies need to be introduced to help both working and unemployed family caregivers for the elderly?

In view of the government’s review of gender equality issues this year, the Singapore Alliance for Women in Ageing (SAWA) hopes to give voice to caregivers in the community and ensure that your concerns are heard. If you are a caregiver of a family member aged 70 years and above, SAWA invites you to attend a discussion to share your experiences! (Please note that this discussion is not affiliated with the government’s ongoing “Conversations on Women’s Development”.)

This event will open with remarks by our Guest of Honour, Minister of State Sun Xueling, one of the leaders of the government’s review of gender issues. Next, researchers from Duke-NUS will make a presentation on the costs of informal eldercare as well the impact of caregiving on caregivers’ employment. This will be followed by a focus group discussion during which you will have a chance to share your experiences and thoughts on the presentation. You can also describe what policy changes you would like to see, such as family care leave or caregiver allowance.

Following this, the discussed recommendations will be collated into a community policy wishlist that SAWA will submit to policy makers. Selected Members of Parliament, including Ms Carrie Tan and Ms Hany Soh, will be present during the small group discussions to hear directly from the community. Nonetheless, please be assured that no identifiable information will be reported publicly.

Date: 27 May 2021 (Thursday)

Time: 2pm-4m

Venue: Zoom

Register here!

Programme Details

• 2:00 pm – Welcome remarks by SAWA Leader (Junie Foo, President, SCWO). Opening remarks by Guest of Honour, MOS Sun Xueling. (Host: Susana Harding, Senior Director, International Longevity Centre Singapore, Tsao Foundation)
• 2:15 pm – TraCE study presentation: Dr Rahul Malhotra on the study rationale, design and participant characteristics
• 2:25 pm – TraCE study presentation: Ms Diyana Azman on informal caregiving time and its cost in context of eldercare in Singapore
• 2:35 pm – TraCE study presentation: Dr Abhijit Visaria on the impact of caregiving on caregivers’ employment, and its relationship with caregiver stress and depression
• 2:45 pm – Breakout group discussion. MPs to attend breakout discussions of their choosing
• 3:15 pm – Big group sharing
• 3:40 pm – Sharing by MPs (Moderator: Margaret Thomas, President, AWARE / Corinna Lim, Executive Director, AWARE)
• 3:50 pm – Closing remarks by SAWA leader (Rahayu Mohamad, Immediate Past President, PPIS)
• 4:00 pm – End