Interviews

Profile of Elderly #1 – Mrs Ke 

Mrs Ke is a chinese lady, currently 82 years old and moved to a rented house with
her husband since 7 years ago, 2012. Unforturnately, her husband died in 2 years ago so she has to stay alone. Her daughters and sons who don't live with her, visit her every Saturday. She likes to follow her daily routine which are doing exercise in the morning at Senior Activity Centre, followed by buying her own lunch and then attends the activity at Senior Centre. Lastly, she would go back home to cook her own dinner and her favourite food is salmon dishes. When I asked her about her dream or hope, she just hope that her children and grandsons can be healthy, have a stable income and don't do bad things. This shows how contented she is as a person. She feels happier now because she has friends at Senior Activity Centre and in the past she has to earn a living for not just herself but the whole family. Her life was tough in the past as compared to now. 
 

Profile of Elderly #2 – Ms Tan

The second elderly we interviewed is Ms Tan, 64 this year. She is living alone in a rental flat but she has an elder brother and sister whom she would visit occasionally on weekends. She lives a really simple life and attends the Senior Activity Centre on weekdays and on weekends, she would usually go shopping with her ex-colleagues. She enjoys shopping, watching korean dramas and doing crafts. She used to work as an office cleaner but already quit ever since she started attending the Senior Activity Centre and thus have more free time now. She does not have any regrets or wishes for the future and is contented with her life.

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Profile of Elderly #3 – Mdm Lee 

The third elderly we interviewed is Mdm Lee, 73 this year. She stays with her husband but they do not any children. She spends her days volunteering at the Senior Activity Centre and doing a part-time cleaning job sometimes. She enjoys cooking simple dishes , reading newspapers and exercising. She volunteers at the SAC to spend her time and at the same time being able to help others. On certain weekends, she would also visit the temple at Bugis and would go shopping after that. Sometimes there would also have gatherings at her siblings' house on weekends. However, she do have some financial worries as her husband is not working and since they do not have any children, she became the sole breadwinner of the family. Apart from that, she is also concerned about her relationship with the elderly at the SAC as she met with some communication barriers with some of the elderly there. As there are many of them there all with differing opinions, there are bound to be differences between them and conflicts are certainly unavoidable. This led to unwanted rumours spreading around and troubled her sometimes. Even with all these worries, overall she is still an optimistic and big-hearted person who enjoys helping others. She do not have any regrets but she do miss the kampong spirit when the community is close-knitted and neighbours are just like family. 

them as well.​

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Profile of Elderly #4 - Mr Peh

Mr Peh is 66 years old who is Single and stays in a shared rented flat. Previously, he work as a Electrician but now he has retired.​ He has about 10 family members and he will visit them once a week. He likes to watch Getai as he likes to listen to music and sing, he was also known as the King of Singer by another auntie at LB. He normally spend his day by using his phone to watch FB news/videos and play Pokémon GO. He go to LB for entertainment purpose as they have scheduled activities for them and to communicate with the younger generations. When asked if he has any regrets, he said he does not have any as to him, whatever he did wrong or didn't do during that time, has already been done/has passed already, so he prefer to just forget about it. When I asked him whether has LB change his life he mentioned that they actually have schedules activities for them which allow them to follow so they do not have to think what to do next. He also mentioned that at LB, anything that they don't know they can actually get the staff there to teach

Profile of Elderly #5 – Mdm Foo
Mdm Foo is 80 years old this year and she lives alone in a rental flat. She has two daughters and one son, who visits her every once in a week or two to have dinner with her. Whenever her children visits, she would cook a meal for the family to eat together. Mdm Foo does not have any hobbies. In her daily life, she follows a strict routine of waking up at 6am to do household chores and to have breakfast. She would then go to the Senior Activity Centre (SAC) near her block at 10am for her daily exercise and engage in activities planning by the SAC. In the past, she worked as a seamstress where she sewed school uniforms at home. Now, she wishes to lead a simple life and feels the happiest when her loved ones are all together.

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Organization's Perspective 

The in-charge of the Clementi SAC, mentioned that the issue of elderly social isolation is hard to tackle. In the recent years, this issue was neither rising nor decreasing. As Singapore's aging population continues to increase, it is hard for us to see a significant decrease in this issue in the coming years. For most of the elderly at the SAC, they live alone in rental flats and some have financial difficulties. With them living alone, it increases the risk of them dying alone as in most cases, the elderly falls without anyone knowing. The in-charge of the SAC also mentioned that SACs help seniors who are at risk of eldely social isolation and those who actually work with seniors who are socially isolated are the Befrienders of Lion Befrienders (LB). 

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