Elderly & Palliative Care
Project Happy Apples was founded in 2012 with a vision to develop societal preparedness for end-of-life care and death. Our mission is to effect change through two main initiatives:
- PALsCare Patient Befriending Program - Aimed at equipping medical students with the experience and skills with regard to end-of-life care
- Public Exhibitions - To engage & educate the public
Medical students are given the opportunity to accompany palliative patients through their journey and provide psychological and social comfort, support their basic needs and plan activities requested by patients. We hope this journey will nurture doctors who understand the importance and concepts of palliative care.
Organizing public exhibitions at different places across Singapore, we encourage end-of-life care conversations by introducing thought-provoking questions to elicit the public’s interests and perceptions, and then broaden their understanding of palliative care and end-of-life care.
Project Legacy is a palliative care project that aims to help terminally ill patients regain a sense of fulfillment and purpose, reconcile their feelings with their prognosis, and also recognise their milestones in life. We do so by helping them create a product of their choosing which will, upon completion, be given to their families as a keepsake. Till date, we have helped numerous patients leave behind a legacy of their own in the form of recipe books, photo collages, video messages and their likes. Through Project Legacy, we have also given our volunteers an opportunity to step out of the character of an aspiring doctor to see patients in the way most befitting of them - human beings with personalities, stories and experiences that make them special.
Project OWL involves the distribution of mandarin oranges, performance of CNY songs and interaction with patients at various restructured hospitals around Singapore during the Chinese New Year period by groups comprising of a mix of Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy and Dentistry students to bring cheer to the patients.
Project SilverCare (PSC) is an annual health-screening programme jointly organised by students from the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, Alice Lee Centre for Nursing Studies, and the Department of Pharmacy from the National University of Singapore. This year it will be partnering the Family Medicine residents from the National University Health System, St Luke’s Hospital and Eldercare and Jurong Health Services to offer participants a more seamless follow-up process post-screening.
PSC provides free healthcare screening targeted at elderly who are financially disadvantaged. We assess key health indicators such as blood pressure and blood glucose measurements, and fall risk of our beneficiaries, as well as educate them on how to take their medication and better manage their health conditions. Patients which require further treatment would then be referred to the relevant healthcare institutions.
We are a group of medical students from Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine interested in bringing individualized music therapy for patients with dementia. Our inspiration came from the documentary “Alive Inside” which focuses on how music – especially old favorite songs – can have significant memory and behavioral benefits especially in patients with dementia.
Our pilot group will be at Renci Nursing Home (Moulmein).
The long-term aim would be to generate an application or a website with a database of music preferences of the elderly in Singapore, to allow easy access to playlists for caregivers and patients from their homes.
Tri-Generational HomeCare @ North West comprises of students from Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, Social Work and Occupational Therapy who are passionate about serving the elderly and nurturing the next generation. Our partners are Khoo Teck Puat Hospital (KTPH) – Aging-in-Place (AIP) Program and North West Community Development Council (NWCDC). We aim to provide long-term holistic care to elderly in terms of medical and psychosocial support. We hope to engage secondary school students in this endeavour where they can learn valuable skills by serving the elderly. Teams comprising of university and secondary school students will care for 1 to 2 elderly via fortnightly home visits over 6 months. To ensure a high standard of care for the patients, the teams will present their assessment and management plans to healthcare professionals from KTPH at the middle and end of each cycle. Adequate training will be provided for volunteers to equip them with knowledge and skills required.
