SingPost postmen to check the well-being of the elderly on their rounds
Singapore Post Limited (SingPost) has launched its Postman Home Visits initiative, where postmen volunteer to check on vulnerable elderly while making their delivery rounds.
The launch comes after a successful year-long pilot with AMKFSC Community Services and social enterprise NTUC Health SilverACE (Henderson), seven participating postmen and 11 seniors in the Ang Mo Kio and Henderson districts.
Following the success of the pilot, SingPost will progressively roll out the programme to all districts across Singapore.
The Postman Home Visits initiative is a key initiative under SingPost’s Programme Silver, a community scheme aimed at addressing issues arising from Singapore’s ageing population.
Under Programme Silver, SingPost has put in place dementia awareness training for its frontline delivery staff to keep an eye out for the elderly in the community, and organised courses for seniors as part of People’s Association Seniors for Smart Nation workshops to learn about new technologies and services at SingPost’s new-generation smart post offices.
Commenting on the initiative Mr Woo Keng Leong, CEO of Postal Services, SingPost said: “Postmen have been an ubiquitous part of the community for more than a century. The Postman Home Visits initiative is a natural extension of their service to the community, as it offers kind-hearted staff the opportunity to do good during the course of their work.
“SingPost is proud to enable these postmen to do good for the community, and would like to thank our social agency partners as well for offering us the support, training and guidance for this initiative.”
The Postman Home Visits initiative supplements regular visits by social service organisations to the vulnerable elderly, with the postmen acting as an extra pair of eyes and ears for the social workers.
Mr Ng Koon Sing, Head of AMKFSC’s COMNET Senior Services said: “AMKFSC is delighted to be partnering with SingPost on the Postman Home Visits initiative to check on the well-being of seniors under our care. The volunteers are very helpful in maintaining contact with seniors who are of high risk and in need of more frequent contact than the normal weekly befriending.”
NTUC Health deploys community care teams and a large pool of volunteers to look out for the well-being of seniors who are frail and home-bound.
Ms Jeannie Ho, Director, Senior Cluster Network of NTUC Health said:
“NTUC Health is pleased to partner with SingPost in their pilot of the Postman Home Visits initiative for seniors served by SilverACE (Henderson). SingPost’s postmen can help to check in on the seniors, and be that additional pair of eyes and ears to check for us. As Singapore’s population ages, the community as a whole will increasingly need to work together to care for seniors, especially those who are living alone.“
