Happiness in helping: Meet the active seniors who volunteer to guide and coach

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SINGAPORE – At a sheltered court in Ang Mo Kio Avenue 10, Madam Susan Park guides nearly 40 seniors through a seated exercise routine.

 

The 63-year-old demonstrates stretches and cardio movements. Later, she walks among the participants, encouraging them to keep up with the beat.

 

Madam Park spends about two hours, four to five times a week, at active ageing centres run by social service agency Allkin Singapore. She leads morning exercises, sets up chairs for events or acts as tech support for seniors who need assistance with their cellphones.

 

On weekends, she takes a one-hour bus ride from her Ang Mo Kio home to a care home for seniors in the east. There, she feeds residents and engages with them.

 

Volunteering makes her feel useful, she tells The Straits Times in Mandarin, via an interpreter.

 

“I feel very fulfilled. At home, my family needs me, and over here, the seniors need me,” she says.

 

Volunteering improves quality of life

 

Before signing up as a volunteer at Allkin Singapore’s active ageing centre two years ago, Madam Park already led a full life.

 

The housewife exercised several times a week, attending Zumba, qigong and other free classes available via the Health Promotion Board’s (HPB) Healthy 365 app. She spent time with her family, including her husband, a retired lorry driver, her three grown children and three grandchildren. She also visited the senior care home on weekends, a habit from when her late aunt was a resident there.

 

Expanding her volunteer hours has made her happier. She has made new friends among the staff and clients at the active ageing centres. Helping them gives her a warm and satisfying feeling, she says.

 

Indeed, a study published earlier in 2024 by researchers from Nanyang Technological University and Duke-NUS Medical School has found that older adults who volunteer report better quality of life.

 

The researchers analysed data from 2,887 Singaporeans aged 60 and above. The data was collected as part of a nationally representative longitudinal study of older Singaporeans, known as the Transitions In Health, Employment, Social Engagement And Inter-Generational Transfers In Singapore Study.

 

Those aged 60 and above who volunteer regularly feel that they have more social support and control over their lives, according to the paper. Titled How Helping You Helps Me, it was published in The Journals Of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences And Social Sciences.

 

Senior volunteers might feel more supported because volunteering can lead to more social interaction and new relationships, the study noted.

 

“Improved perceived social support can itself lead to a positive impact on many other well-being outcomes for older adults,” the researchers added.

 

Getting healthy for, and with, friends

 

Mr Lim Phi Hock, 67, organises a weekly walking group for his social circle. He knows that without the company of friends, he would not have had the confidence to stay active after a health scare.

 

In 2023, the retired business processes manager woke up unable to lift his legs. He could not stand, let alone walk, and was hospitalised for five weeks because of a nervous system disorder.

 

When he began physiotherapy to help him stand and walk again, the physiotherapist asked him to think about what he wanted to do when he recovered.

 

“I said: ‘My friends are waiting for me.’” He and his longstanding group of friends do qigong and go on walks together.

 

When Mr Lim was discharged from hospital, the thought of meeting them motivated him to return to his active lifestyle.

 

“Exercise is a social thing,” he says. “If your friends say they are coming, then you will also go.”

 

“I decided that more people should benefit from this,” he adds. He decided to expand the walking group to relatives and friends.

 

Mr Lim now organises weekly treks for a private WhatsApp community of around 100 members. He looks for new routes of 4km to 10km so the group will not get bored. He sets up wet-weather plans and a calendar of events that people can choose from.

 

Between 18 and 40 people might turn up for the weekly walk. Most are around his age, including his 63-year-old wife, who recently retired from working at a bank. They have a son and two daughters.

 

Apart from leading the walking group, Mr Lim is also part of HPB’s Health Ambassador Network, joining officially in 2023.

 

More than half of HPB’s 700 Health Ambassadors are aged 60 and above. They may lead interest groups in their community for sports or other physical activities; volunteer for health education and outreach; or lead rehabilitation exercises at hospitals that have partnered HPB for this purpose.

 

Mr Lim has conducted exercise sessions for active ageing centres and is trained to share health information as well. “When I retired, I had to spend my time somewhere. I will go wherever someone needs me,” he says.

 

Volunteering made her dream come true

 

Volunteering to help people with disabilities enjoy and compete in sports has made Ms Suriani Soo’s childhood dream come true.

 

The 65-year-old wanted to be a national sprinter, but was thwarted by the lack of sports schools when she was a child.

 

“I didn’t have the opportunity to go far in sports,” says Ms Soo, who used to be a sales manager for a department store before retraining as a senior learning facilitator at a school for children with special needs.

 

She began volunteering at sports events for children with special needs in 1999. Some years later, she began volunteering at Special Olympics Singapore. The local arm of an international organisation, it helps people with intellectual disabilities participate in sport.

 

Ms Soo has been a volunteer coach for the ball sport bocce with Special Olympics Singapore since 2007. That year, she was selected to coach the Singapore team for the Special Olympics World Summer Games in Shanghai.

 

“It was what I had been yearning for,” she recalls. “I wanted to represent the country. I wanted to be part of the delegation walking through the stadium. That was my dream.”

 

She also volunteered at the Special Olympics World Summer Games in 2015 and 2019, flying to Los Angeles and Abu Dhabi respectively on her own dime. “I love going to sports events,” she says.

 

A spokesman for Special Olympics Singapore says it has 28 volunteers aged 60 and above, some of whom have supported the athletes for years.

 

Ms Soo is one of them, having coached bocce for nearly 20 years. She looks forward to Saturday coaching sessions with the athletes. The youngest of her charges is 10, the oldest 42.

 

“They are my motivation,” she says. “I find this so meaningful.”

 

Despite benefits, few older adults volunteer

 

Volunteering gives older adults a sense of meaning and purpose. Experts say it also keeps them mentally and physically active.

 

Despite all these benefits, only a small number of seniors in Singapore volunteer regularly.

 

Allkin Singapore, for example, has 3,000 registered volunteers of which just over 160 people are aged 60 and older. It engages about 5,000 clients in that same age range through its active ageing centres. The agency has a number of programmes for various demographics, including youth, and senior volunteers are deployed across these programmes.

 

The number of senior volunteers has not changed much in the past few years, says a spokesman for the agency.

 

An overwhelming majority of older Singaporeans are non-volunteers, according to a 2022 study by Singapore Management University’s Centre for Research on Successful Ageing. It looked at the volunteering habits of Singaporeans and their spouses aged 56 to 75. The study found that only 7 to 8 per cent of HDB residents and fewer than 14 per cent of those residing in private apartments or private property had volunteered in the previous year.

 

Madam Park had some misgivings in the beginning. She started visiting Allkin Singapore’s active ageing centres near her home in Ang Mo Kio when she turned 60, attracted by the exercise activities. Soon, she was helping with small tasks.

 

However, she refused to sign up officially as a volunteer when first asked. She worried that volunteering at Allkin Singapore would eat into her family commitments. She worried about being too old, or being unable to handle the clients at the active ageing centre.

 

Continued involvement changed her mind. She was inspired by the patience of the staff as they served clients. She also felt the need to help out the older members, whether it was with tech support or helping them communicate with the centre staff.

 

“Being able to help them makes me happy,” she says.

 

“I like volunteering to the extent that now, when my daughter wants to take me on holiday, I say no,” she adds.

 

 

Source: The Straits Times © SPH Media Limited. Reproduced with permission.

 

 

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