Publication Type
Report
Year
6-2015
Abstract
Who are Singapore’s low-income elderly? What makes some resilient in the face of multiple challenges? What are their social needs that might be filled by additional interventions via civil society or government programmes? These are some of the questions this publication tries to understand.
It does so not by surveying the elderly, but via intensive interviews with 100 residents of one low-income neighbourhood in Singapore. Whereas surveys can help gather generalisable data, interviews can help us see the ‘story behind the story,’ illuminating potential causal connections and providing hints regarding possible effective ways to intercede. We followed this up with a series of small-group conversations with our participants, as well as ‘social conversations’ with representatives of Singapore’s leading civil society organisations.
From this we discovered important insights about social isolation, financial deprivation and physical challenges amongst participating elderly. We have already started to apply these tentative conclusions to work with our VWO partner and other engaged parties. This puts ‘action’ into our research – the proactive use of research results to make a change and co-create tangible improvements.
Disciplines
Asian Studies | Social Policy | Social Welfare
Publisher
Singapore Management University, Lien Centre
Language
eng
Copyright Holder
Lien Centre for Social Innovation
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Format
application/PDF
Citation
DONALDSON, John A.; SMITH, Catherine J.; Balakrishnan, Balambigai; KADIR, Mumtaz Md; and MUDALIAR, Sanushka.
Elderly Population in Singapore: Understanding Social, Physical and Financial Needs. (2015). 1-42.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/lien_reports/7
Included in
Asian Studies Commons, Social Policy Commons, Social Welfare Commons