Singapore Patient Conference 2022 Celebrates Ten Years of Empowering Carers in the Community

16 November 2022

Fifteen individuals and groups honoured for dedication and compassion at the eighth annual Singapore Patient Action Awards

Everyone has an equal role to play in co-creating a better health and social care system for all: this has been the message of the Singapore Patient Conference (SPC) for the past decade. As the conference celebrates its tenth anniversary, this year's theme "Building Healthier and Happier Communities" highlights a whole-of-society effort. This ranges from initiatives that bridge health and social care to ground-up movements that spread kindness and build strong social support, as well as to designing better living spaces that promote care and healing. This parallels the national push towards Healthier SG, with a plenary presentation featuring cross-industry speakers touching on different aspects of health and community.

SPC is the first and only local healthcare conference that brings together the full spectrum of community involved in the patient journey, in order to learn from one another and better empower individuals such as caregivers, patients, volunteers and even community members. From a small half-day event attended by some 300 patients and volunteers in 2013, SPC has evolved to become not just a multi-platform experience, but a key engagement platform for more than 40,000 patients, caregivers, volunteers, community partners, and health and social care professionals to date, through digital platforms.

This year, SPC hosted the annual interactive cooking workshop – Let's Get Cookin'! – in collaboration with the 'Share a Pot' programme at Yishun Health. Launched in 2015, 'Share a Pot' is a volunteer-run, community-based project to improve the nutrition and fitness of community-dwelling seniors. Seniors come together within their community to exercise, prepare and eventually enjoy a warm, delicious bowl of nutritious soup. This encourages seniors to take charge of their own health and well-being through healthier eating with easy-

to-prepare recipes, and gives them opportunities to fill their time with meaningful activities while also expanding their social circles.

Our SPC journey started 10 years ago as a platform to bring healthcare professionals, patients, caregivers, community partners and volunteers together so that the care for patients doesn't remain episodic but one that is centered on consistently good lasting relationships. As an ecosystem, we have taken big strides in enabling care to be more sustainable through prevention, community activation and promotion of healthier living. Our model of co learning and co creating for a strong future healthcare is only set to become more pivotal as we collectively move towards ensuring that the population we serve is now cared for closer to home and kept healthy and happy within the community,"

- Prof Eugene Fidelis Soh, Chief Executive Officer of TTSH and Central Health

SPC is organised by Tan Tock Seng Hospital's Centre for Health Activation, in partnership with Central Health, National Healthcare Group, National Healthcare Group Polyclinics, Institute of Mental Health and Yishun Health.

Please refer to Annex A for details about the SPAA winners and media liaison contact information.

Annex A

Singapore Patient Action Awards (SPAA) 2022 Winners