Seniors learn to solve active ageing challenges alongside youth in new NTUC Health programme
Published on
03 Mar 2025
Published by
The Straits Times
SINGAPORE – How would an active ageing centre look like and what facilities and activities would it have, if a group of seniors were to design it?
Under a new initiative by NTUC Health, Mr Lim Gek Heng, a 78-year-old retired machinery maintenance supervisor, has been learning to design such a centre with 10 other elderly men and eight volunteers from Youth Corps.
One of their challenges is how to get more male seniors to be a part of these centres. Typically, more women than men join the programmes organised by active ageing centres.
Mr Lim said: “I really enjoy spending time with the young people to learn together and brainstorm ideas. They remind me of myself when I was young and they help me to be more open to new things.”
The new initiative, called Designing Together, brings together seniors and youth to come up with ideas for the former to lead healthier, more active lives.
Such an inter-generational approach also helps to cultivate empathy and strengthen bonds between the generations, said NTUC Health chief executive officer Chan Su Yee. “Youth bring a lot of positivity and energy and this zest for life, which is really what we hope to ignite in seniors as well,” she added. Seniors would be able to share their wisdom and life experience with young people too.
Ms Chan noted that all NTUC Health’s active ageing centres offer regular inter-generational activities, such as a Lego and coding programme introduced in 2024 which paired seniors with pre-schoolers to pick up digital literacy and problem-solving skills.
The Designing Together programme was announced on March 1 at the official opening of NTUC Health’s newest active ageing centre at Block 424 Serangoon Central.
During the programme’s pilot phase – which began on Jan 15 and will run until March 30 – young people aged 17 to 35 and the male seniors aged 68 to 78 will meet over five sessions to tackle the challenge of getting more elderly men to expand their social network and live more actively.
Research has shown that participation in physical and social activities can lower seniors’ risk of developing health problems such as dementia and heart disease.
While men’s participation at NTUC’s active ageing centres varies and depends on factors such as location, they make up just 20 per cent of participants at some centres, noted NTUC Health Active Ageing Centres head Lily Yeo.
In Designing Together, which is developed by the elderly care provider and the non-profit GenLab Collective, participants learn design-thinking – a problem-solving methodology which prioritises and empathises with the needs of users.
They will go on to implement activities and subsequently refine them based on feedback.
Mr Lim said that he is keen to get more men to visit active ageing centres as he has found that his participation has helped him stay active and social. He goes to the centre at Jurong Centre Plaza.
NTUC Health will eventually roll out the Designing Together programme across its network of more than 20 active ageing centres.
The new one in Serangoon Central is the first of five new active ageing centres NTUC Health is opening in 2025. By the end of the year, it is expected to have 27 such centres across Singapore.
At the opening of the new centre, Speaker of Parliament Seah Kian Peng described active ageing centres as free “country clubs” for seniors, with activities to allow them to age actively and with dignity.
Mr Seah – who is also the MP for the Braddell Heights division of Marine Parade GRC where the centre is located – noted that several other such centres are expected to open in the coming months.
These include one at the upcoming Serangoon Polyclinic, touted to be Singapore’s largest polyclinic when it opens by end-2025.
By 2026, Singapore is set to become a super-aged society, with more than 21 per cent of the population aged 65 or older. By 2030, the proportion will go up to one in four citizens. To meet the needs of the Republic’s ageing population, the Government aims to have 220 active ageing centres by end-2025. As at November 2024, there are 214.
In 2023, Health Minister Ong Ye Kung announced that the country had set aside $800 million over five years for active ageing centres to expand their outreach and increase the range and quality of their programmes.
Source: The Straits Times © SPH Media Limited. Reproduced with permission.
Photo: The Straits Times
Written By: Zhaki Abdullah
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