Empowering Hidden Heroes

​Caregivers Alliance Limited (CAL) is the only non-profit organisation in Singapore dedicated to empowering mental health caregivers through education and support. Despite an increasing focus on mental health, caregivers are often overlooked and require support to manage the challenges of their role.

Through their signature programmes, CAL raises awareness of different mental health conditions and impart skills related to self-care, communication, resilience-building, and advocacy. These training programmes also provide a crucial platform for caregivers to share personal experiences and build new friendships, thereby creating a strong caregiver support network. In Bishan, CAL works closely with partners like People’s Association to reach out to and offer its programmes to caregivers of persons with mental health conditions in the neighbourhood.

Beyond providing a platform to increase knowledge and caregiving skills, CAL’s Caregivers to Caregivers (C2C) training programme allows caregivers who have benefitted to give back to the community through volunteering. 

At the recent C2C training programme, volunteer Lim Mui Hua shared about how her family failed to recognise the signs of dementia in her mother and her struggles to cope with the demands of caregiving on top of her job. She recounted the stress and difficult conversations with her siblings as the family grappled with their mother’s diagnosis. Attending CAL’s training programme was the turning point in her caregiving journey where she learnt more about dementia and how to communicate better with her mother.

The course has allowed me to meet other caregivers and find support in each other. We share our experiences, and everyone's experience is different, allowing me to gain more knowledge about caregiving.

Because mum is not very expressive, I have learned to pay attention to her expressions and body language to understand what she needs. As children, I believe we should be filial to our parents and try to enjoy time with them in their old age. Attending C2C has helped me do that.”

- Mdm Lim Mui Hua

Volunteers such as Lim Mui Hua inspire other caregivers by sharing about the challenges, lessons learnt and turning points in their caregiving journey. They are also empowered to co-facilitate these training sessions and impart practical caregiving skills to others.

A caregiver can be a family member, friend, colleague, or neighbour. Lend a listening ear, offer a shoulder to lean on, or share resources with caregivers around you – no matter how small a gesture, all of us can do our part in building a more caring community in Bishan.