“Working with the community to improve the lives of our residents”
Chairman’s Message
During the Year under review, we increased the number of Day Activity Center Clients to 29. This is the result of the extension of our transport coverage to areas such as Kallang, and Hougang. We also maintained our residential home at near full capacity. Even with the additional work-load, we continued to maintain the high quality of care as seen through the achievement of our EPES goals.
We included new programs for our residents such as cooking classes where our residents learn to cook simple but delicious meals. Other programs of note include our computer classes where the residents learn to use the computer, and our PT department where our therapy aides improve the fitness and flexibility of our clients.
Improvement to our facilities
We continued to improve the facilities around the home, in particular the support structure for our IT systems. The electrical wiring was upgraded in key areas of the home, ensuring that essential services will not be affected in case of power surges. Our CCTV camera system was also upgraded to improve the security around the home.
Bishan Home set about revamping its website in 2011. In collaboration with Nanyang Polytechnic and using a grant from IDA, Bishan Home transformed a static website into a dynamic, interactive site that includes video links, updated photos of volunteer activities, outings and Bishan Home events and classes. The new website also has a link to Bishan Home’s Facebook page, and to SG Gives, the local donation portal. We feel the new website will be essential in our future efforts in reaching out, informing and educating the public on intellectual disability and the good works we do in Bishan Home.
Improvements to services
Bishan Home began a collaborative program with the occupational therapy and physiotherapy departments of Allied Health Services, Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH) to improve the quality of the care provided to our residents. With an aging population, it is essential we take steps to help the residents to prolong their ambulating activities, keeping them active and fit. The collaboration with TTSH will enable us to upgrade our therapy services, as well as plan a therapy program that targets the needs of our residents and clients better. An environmental scan done by the TTSH staff also highlighted possible areas of concern for an aging population; Bishan Home is now looking at addressing these areas. Already we are starting to see the results of the collaboration, with less accidents occurring.
We have begun a program for providing medical consultations for our more needy residents with SATA. Aptly named Doctors on Wheels, this program brings SATA doctors to Bishan Home once every three months where they will hold consultations for our residents.
With the aging population in Bishan Home, bringing the doctors to our residents will allow more residents, especially those who face difficulties in traveling to the doctors, more access to health care.
Looking forward to the future – Standards of care
Bishan Home is well positioned to improve the standards of care in its services to our residents. Bishan Home already has a comprehensive, ISO certified system (re-certified in 2011) in place, which we can build on to establish Standards of Care. For a start, we will be putting a team into place to look at areas we can improve so that we can deliver ever better services and care to our residents and DAC clients. This is in keeping with our ISO quality policy of continual improvement: to provide holistic care to develop life skills of our residents and DAC clients in order for them to lead meaningful lives.
The environmental scan has also highlighted areas where Bishan Home can improve its safety, especially in the light of Bishan Home’s aging population. Bishan Home will look at improving the safety especially in our toilets as it is often the location of most accidents in the home.
In the light of several high profile internal control failures at other organizations, Bishan Home has also begun a review of its processes, looking at tightening our internal controls, as well as looking the choice of vendors and suppliers.
We look forward to another year of continuing review and improvements in standards of care and to extend our care ministry to more in the community who can benefit from our work at Bishan Home.
Mr. Lau Wah Ming
Chairman