Living well, leaving well

Rebecca Jee is a retiree with a busy schedule. She enjoys spending time with her friends and volunteering at community events run by Life Point Center, a project by the Society of Sheng Hong Welfare Services.

The 69-year-old is one of Life Point’s many elderly members who are making the most of their golden years.

Rebecca Jee completes Advanced Care Planning with a facilitator from Life Point Center.

For Rebecca, that means planning not just how she wants to live, but how she wants to die. While death may be an uncomfortable topic for many of her peers, the former nurse is candid about her last wishes.

“As a nurse I saw a lot of suffering, like brain death and all that, and I saw caregivers suffer a lot. Not only the patient but the caregiver has to go through such a long period [of difficulty]. So if I am on respirator, and I am brain dead, might as well take it out,” she says.

Rebecca made these wishes known by doing Advanced Care Planning (ACP), a series of discussions for people to plan their future health and personal care. It can be done either at home with their loved ones, or with a trained facilitator.

Life Point Center organizes social activities for elderly members to interact.

ACP is one of the many ways Singaporeans can plan end of life care. Another option is the advanced medical directive, a legal document to inform doctors that if the patient is terminally ill and unconscious, they do not want extraordinary life-sustaining treatment to prolong their life.

As Singapore heads towards having an aging population, the Ministry of Health has launched a three-year partnership with the Singapore Hospice Council to raise awareness of end of life care. These measures are particularly timely – by 2030, almost half of Singapore’s population will be at least 65.

Experts say Singaporeans are slowly opening up to discussing end of life preparation. Sara Tan, executive director of the Society of Sheng Hong Welfare Services, says, “We want to normalize this conversation that death is actually very much a part of life. Death is everybody’s final destination.”

Singapore Hospice Council Yeo Tan Tan works with charities and hospitals to raise awareness of palliative care.

Yeo Tan Tan, CEO of the Singapore Hospice Council, adds that end of life preparation benefits both the patient and family members, who can rest assured they are carrying out their loved one’s wishes.

As more people open up about their end of life wishes, Singaporeans can look forward not just to living well, but leaving with dignity too.

(CGTN)