SENIOR'S PERCEPTION OF ROLE OF HANNAH SENIOR ACTIVITY CENTRE IN MEETING THEIR NEEDS

Abstract

The demographics of Singapore’s ageing population is changing as the early baby boomer generation ages into their senior years. The baby boomer generation is described to be healthier, more educated and have a higher income. Hence, with reference to elderly services, they have different needs and demands. This shows the importance of current elderly services in remaining relevant to its target group by constantly reviewing and updating their services. It is found that one main trend of ageing in Singapore is the preference of seniors to age-in-place. To facilitate this, Senior Activity Centres (SACs) were opened in the community of the elderly, initially in rental flats, and now for SAs as well. Although both rental flats and SAs have high concentration of elderly living in them, the demographics of both groups of elderly differ significantly, thus rendering service provided or the approach in providing services to be different. Since SACs serving rental flats have been around for much longer than SACs serving SAs, an enduring perception of what a SAC is may have been formed, potentially affecting the uptake of services for seniors living in SA. In this study, the researcher is interested to find out how the early baby boomer generation perceive the role of the SAC in meeting their ageing needs, using Hannah Senior Activity Centre (HSAC) as a case study. This qualitative exploratory research uses Activity Theory of Ageing as well as Burton’s and Merrill’s model of needs as a guide to address three main research questions: (1) What are the activities that meaningfully engage the elderly in their middle-age and current-age? (2) What is the elderly’s perception of the role of HSAC in meeting their felt, anticipated and critical-incident needs? (3) How would the elderly’s ideal SAC look like? It was found that there is an inverse correlation between the perception of the extent of HSAC’s role in helping them successfully age and the senior’s ambulatory status. Notwithstanding this, seniors generally perceive HSAC to play a significant role in their ageing journey, especially in the social aspect to increase social networks and providing a sense of security for them to age-in-place currently. They credit the welcoming physical and social environment of HSAC to be pull factors. Seniors also perceive HSAC as a resource that complements their existing networks and routine, mainly in the aspect of keeping physically healthy and leading fulfilling lives through meeting spiritual needs or doing good. In the case of an emergency, family is still the first line of support. Moving forward, it is suggested that a more structured, theoretical approach to building social networks using the centre as a mean could be employed to build up a community spirit.